We just wrapped up the keynote for Palm’s Developer Day in New York City. A tag-team of Ben Galbraith, Dion Almaer, Phil McKinney, and Joe Hayashi took the stage to give an overview of where they see web and mobile development now and where they see it going in the future.

Ben and Dion noted that the web and HTML5 really are going to become a first-class app development and distribution platform – as evidenced by even Microsoft’s new and surprising support for HTML5 standards.

Phil McKinney gave his ’stump speech’  about the excitement within HP for webOS and reiterated that HP is looking to drive webOS to lots of form factors and devices to fill the gap between the smartphone and the PC. Phil also broke out his flexible display technology. We asked him how he’s going to keep excitement up over the next few months for webOS in the consumer market and his response: it will be easier to generate excitement when you have new devices. Expect HP to bring tablets, new phones, and "really interesting new form factors" in 2011. McKinney also noted that HP controls literally 10% of the shelf space in the consumer electronics space and they plan to make Palm "to play an important part for that shelf space."

Later on, Joe Hayashi teased that HP will be moving away from the current application framework (called Mojo) to something called "Enyo" that will be faster, support multiple form factors, and work with Palm’s online, drag-n-drop development Ares system. (in fact, "Enyo" is a Greek goddess of war and a companion to the war-god Ares – get it?). Hayashi notes that the Early Access Developer SDK will see support for both Enyo and tablets in early 2011. Also pegged for "Early 2011"  - those slates and phones that Palm is very much aware we are all waiting on.

We’ll have more on the Enyo app framework later this afternoon. Keep it locked to PreCentral!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Palm’s latest Developer Podcast features Ben & Dion discussing webOS 2.0, cross-platform development, and a few of the events that Palm Developer Relations has gone to and will go to soon.

There’s nothing that we could glean that’s new compared to what we have already seen from webOS 2.0, but they did mention one development opportunity that hadn’t occurred to us. Namely: creating apps that are designed from the get-go to use multiple cards. Since webOS 2.0 brings Stacks to the table, it’s less of a pain if an app utilizes multiple cards – it stops being a hassle and suddenly becomes a big opportunity. Palm promises that they will be bringing that feature to their Facebook app.

So developers, give it a watch. Oh, one more thing. Ben, Dion – while we can forgive you for forgetting that Scrubs has already done an excellent musical episode, we cannot forgive the Sprockets reference. Ever.

Source: YouTube; Thanks webOS Toaster!

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

The eighth installment of Palm’s developer podcast is now online, and the subject matter this time around is well in line with what everyone is excited about today: the addition of Angry Birds to the App Catalog.  Ben and Dion sit down with Peter Vesterbacka from Rovio Mobile and talk shop about the app itself, the inspiration behind it, and why they brought it to Palm.  Vesterbacka goes on to talk about the philosophy behind the Angry Birds franchise, where it’s been and where it’s going, and the technical side of getting Angry Birds up and running on webOS.

Catch the latest podcast from Palm’s Developer Relations team after the break!

Source: Palm’s YouTube Channel via Palm Developer Center Blog

read more

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Rahul Sood, founder of luxury PC maker Voodoo, HP’s CTO of gaming and recent champion of webOS has finally sat down with Palm’s directors of dev relations Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer.  Discussion in this rare, audio only podcast includes: Rahul’s background with Voodoo, his passion for design, what HP has to offer the webOS community, his thoughts on where mobile gaming is going, and more.

Great to see execs like Sood fired up about Palm and webOS!

Source: Palm’s Developer Blog 

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

We just finished watching a rare solo appearance by Palm Developer Relations’ Ben Galbraith at MobileBeat 2010 in a "fireside chat" with VentureBeat’s Matthäus Kryzkowski. The discussion was fairly general about where webOS has come in the past year with a few hints at where it might be going, including another mention of the cloud-syncin’est database technology known to mobility, DB8, which we reported on past April. It was a "fireside chat," and so not the venue for big announcements, but still illuminating to those looking to get a feel for where the thinking inside HP’s newest subsidiary is right now.

read more

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

The seventh installment of Palm’s ongoing developer podcast series is now online, and the subject this time around is the browser-based Ares development tool.  Ben and Dion (who helped to create Bespin while at Mozilla, on which Ares is built) sit down with Matthew McNulty, Palm Director of Developer Tools, to discuss the history of the development tool from its inception to its public release and where Palm hopes to take it in the future.  The podcast continues (after a somewhat humorous editing gaffe midway through) with McNulty walking us through some of the features in Ares and giving suggestions on how you might include the Ares in your tool chain.  

Ares is a fascinating and exceedingly well executed concept, and many a developer (webOS or not) would be smart to catch a glimpse of where development environments will be headed in the future by catching the video after the break.

Source: Palm Developer Center

read more

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

We’ve already given you the heads up that we’re going to be reporting live from VentureBeat’s annual MobileBeat conference in San Francisco starting on Monday, where the theme will be "The year of the Superphone and who will profit". There’s quite a line up of presenters from many of the major players in the field, and HP CTO Phil McKinney is set to kick things off by giving the keynote speech for the event.  

McKinney won’t the the only HP employee active in the event, as Palm’s developer portal blog lets us know that they’ll be there, too:

Palm and HP will be participating in MobileBeat 2010. First, Phil McKinney, VP and CTO of HP Personal Systems Group will be giving the keynote address Monday morning. Then Ben Galbraith, Palm’s Director of Developer Relations will have a “fireside chat” with moderator Matthäus Krzykowski on Tuesday afternoon. They’ll be discussing the future of webOS and its developer program. 

In addition, Ben is one of five judges of the Startup Competition in the Consumer Applications category on Monday from 9-11a.m. Ten finalists have been selected in the “Consumer Applications” category, and Palm will be awarding them with Pre Pluses. Each finalist will have 4 minutes to present their startup company and idea for a killer app. Congratulations to those who made it!Look for Lisa Brewster and other Palm reps to be on hand, raffling devices and generally having a great time. Hope to see you there!

It’s a sweet event that just got a little sweeter with the addition of Palm folk, and it’s still great to the still-intact Developer Relations team out doing what they do best. If you’re thinking of attending the event and haven’t bought your ticket yet, be sure to follow this link and use the promo code “SmartphoneExpertsVIP” to receive a sweet 15% off the normal admission price.  If you are going to be there, drop us a line!

Otherwise, keep it locked here for the latest from Palm and HP at MobileBeat 2010.

Source: Palm Developer Portal Blog

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Palm’s Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, directors of developer relations at Palm, took some time near the end of the third episode of their Palm Developer Podcast Series to talk not only about the Palm Developer Day event, but also the announced HP acquisition.

After a bit of silliness (hawking HP printers, ink and even paper), they both spoke extremely positively about what the HP deal might mean for the company and its developer community.

Ben: “We couldn’t be more excited about the possibilities that this merger opens up for developers. We are…really thrilled about what’s possible here….“If the deal goes through, we will be with the largest technology company in the planet.”

Dion: “webOS is this amazing but very young operating system, and now, with a parent like HP, if all of this goes through, we’ll have the runway to do amazing things. You guys have kind of gotten in in the ground floor, and I think where we take things from here, is going to be an amazing fantastic way.”

While they also pointed out that, “thanks to the legal system being what it is,” they couldn’t say much more, they seemed genuinely enthusiastic about HP and its plans for Palm. (Dion’s offer at the end of the video, “Use webOS, get a free HP printer,” should probably not be taken seriously, though.)

The discussion starts at about 44 minutes into the video, after the break!

read more

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Palm has released the second installment of its developer podcast series featuring Directors of Developer Relations Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer.  You caught the first installment of the podcast series last month, which gave you a high-level look at Palm’s vision going forward, and why Ben and Dion decided to leave Mozilla to work at Palm.  Episode Two gets a little bit more into the nitty gritty, offering a crash course geared towards beginner developers on the platform, showing how to install the necessary tools (such as the SDK and the emulator) to build an application, how to develop an application from scratch and tweak it, and how to deploy that application to the emulator or device for testing.  It’s the perfect primer for folks that have been pondering making the jump into developing for the platform, as all of the basics to get up and running are covered here. Video is after the break!

Additionally, Palm has started to post the slides from their Developer Day online – there are currently three sessions available. We expect more to come – and we also hope that video of the presentations will become available online as well.

Thanks to everyone that sent this in!

read more

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>

Since joining Palm back in September, Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer have really been accomplishing a lot (dare I say kicking ass?) in roles as Directors of Developer Relations.  In addition to the Developer Day (where at, of course, and will be keeping you up to date on the latest happenings) and the on-going podcast series, the two have been giving a 10 week crash course on the future of the web and mobile at a little college in Palo Alto called Stanford University.  The school, along with Palm, are making the videos available online for your learning pleasure.  Currently on week two class, the first class gives a higher-level overview of mobile and the mobile Web, and the latest video covers some HTML/CSS/JavaScript fundementals (you know, the technologies you need to build applications using Palm’s SDK.)

So while you’re kicking yourself for not heading to Sunnyvale this past weekend, cue up the Stanford videos (which are about 50 minutes in length) and get your learn on.

READ THE FULL ARTICLE >>