After a short absence from the webOS development world due to studies, Canuck Coding is back in action. Formerly know as Canuck Software, Canuck Coding has now posted details of upcoming changes and a roadmap of things to come.

Among other things, the roadmap details plans for WebOS Quick Install v4.0. This release is planned with the aim to simplify things for users and improve stability, while adding must-desired features like dependency support, and wireless support via SSH.

Another interesting detail was the plan for Internalz. As webOS 2.0 has changed the landscape for developers so must Internalz change. Java is gone, meaning FileMgr needs to be rewritten in C. And more importantly, webOS 2.0 offers the possibility of seeing a more-restrictive App Catalog-compliant release of Internalz, expanding the user base to non-hombrew users too.

Also making news today is the debut of a video tutorial series, Internalz Tipz.  A prequel #0 episode has been released for those unsure how to install Internalz, and the latest episode #1 has been embedded above. Excluding the prequel, there will be a total of 20 episodes, one released every other day. Each will be very short and simplified for new users to understand.

Chances are over the course of the 40 days, you’ll learn a few new things. The goal is that by the 20th episode, the new C-based FileMgr will complete; a countdown of sorts that many will surely appreciate. So take a watch of the debut episode and enjoy. If you have any suggestions or comments, feel free to speak up in the official series thread.

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The upcoming AT&T “Meet the Expert – webOS Q&A” webinar this Thursday, November 4th, just got more interesting for those considering attending.  AT&T has announced that they will be giving away a Palm Pre Plus to two lucky webinar attendees.  Free Palm Pre Plus phones, an overview of webOS 2.0, and an in depth Q&A with expert webOS developers Greg Hrebek and James Harris are helping shape this webinar into a very worthwhile event.

AT&T is clearly making strides to continue support of webOS development.  The intent of this November 4th webinar, as reported previously, is to continue the momentum gained among developers of other OS platforms from previous webinars and to capitalize on both the announcement of webOS 2.0 and upcoming new webOS devices.

Let us summarize by saying one word, "free."  Free is good, as in free to register with AT&T’s developer program, free to attend this webOS webinar and last but not least, two free Palm Pre Plus phones up for grabs for attendees. 

Source: AT&T Developer Program; Thanks @mahootzki

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With the recent announcement by MotionApps that webOS 2.0 would not include the necessary files to enable its Classic PalmOS emulator to continue to function, Classic users have been scrambling to plan how to transition away from their remaining mission-critical PalmOS apps. Among the many PalmOS apps still in active use is HanDBase, a flexible, powerful relational database that enabled users to create more than 2000 "applets" for a huge number of functions from medical to education to personal.

While DDH Software, the developer of HanDBase, offers versions of the software for almost every major platform (desktop and mobile), it does not have a webOS app. Nor, apparently, is one currently in the works, according to DDH’s president and owner, Dave Haupert. In a pair of e-mails last week, Dave laid out his great respect for Palm, PalmOS and webOS, but also explained the company’s lack of plans for a webOS version of HanDBase, driven both by the current state of webOS development tools, and the unknown number of potential customers. With his permission, we are sharing his words with our community (you’ll find them below).

Here’s hoping that the many existing and potential HanDBase users now on webOS devices demonstrate their interest by contacting DDH, and that the Developer Relations folks and their colleagues at HP/Palm continue and expand their efforts to encourage and support not only new developers, but those that (like DDH) are already aware of the power of webOS and the loyalty of the Palm user community.

(The text of Dave’s e-mails can be found after the break.)

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Alongside what may be a rebranding from Palm webOS to HP webOS in Palm’s missives to developers is another intriguing tidbit: a free device program for developers.

Free Pre Plus to Qualified Developers, through October 31, contact us now at pdc@palm.com.

While we don’t yet know how Palm defines "qualified developers," it’s certainly worth it for developers to e-mail to find out. For the rest of you not-yet-developers, don’t forget that joining Palm’s Developer Program is free and easy–you too could be a "qualified developer" and not even know it!

Source: Palm Developer Newsletter

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Here’s some of the latest talk in the forums:

• Belt holsters are a dime a dozen, but accessories like the Seidio Innocell 2600mAh battery can make finding the perfect one a challenge.  Tonystarx90 is asking for your suggestions on one that might work with that extended battery.
• Not only are the PreCentral forums are a great place to chat about the latest in Palm hardware and software, its great place to talk about developing for the platform, as Zen00 is discovering.   
• The charger door flap finally came off of j_grouchy’s Pre, and they’re wondering what you’ve done to fix the issue, if you have at all.
• If you’ve ever been curious what the condition of your battery is, member somline has a step-by-step guide on how to check it out.

We look forward to seeing you in the forums!  Not already a member?  Hit the registration link – it’s free!

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If you are a webOS developer (or would like to be), AT&T has an upcoming webinar for you. “An Introduction to Palm webOS,” featuring Josh Marinacci of Palm’s Developer Relations team, will be happening on Thursday, June 17, from 10-11 a.m. Pacific time:

From beginners to developers with intermediate knowledge of mobile development, this session will benefit anyone looking to build a new mobile application or those interested in easily porting existing mobile applications to a new platform for greater distribution.

In addition to learning about webOS development, attendees may also enter to win an AT&T smartphone (one would hope they’d choose the Pre Plus or Pixi Plus!).

More details and signup information are available on the AT&T Developer Program Web site. Kudos to AT&T for its support of webOS development, and we look forward to hearing feedback from those who participate in the webinar.

Thanks to TopTongueBarry in our forum for the tip!
 

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If anyone needed further proof that Palm loves the webOS developer community, look no further than what happened to Rob Bredow of Kaboom Apps, developer of favorite game Paratrooper (currently ranked #18 on the Palm Hot Apps list. According to Josh, after providing some high-resolution graphics of Paratrooper to Palm for its CTIA and CES displays, he got an e-mail asking if he would like the panel they displayed. Of course, he agreed, and it just arrived in a crate measuring 10 feet tall and 4.5 feet wide.

Hit up a few more pictures of the big care package after the break.

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One of the greatest parts of knowing that the Palm Developer Relations team are the ones working on the Facebook app, is hearing their comments on development.

A few days ago, Palm updated Facebook on their beta feed to version 1.1.6. On the Palm Developer Center Blog, the team posted an interesting article on it. Evidently, there were 2 central issues they discovered during development, that could prove useful for third party developers to learn from.

The first issue was that if service requests don’t get assigned to a variable, there’s a chance the javascript garbage collector might scoop it off into oblivion. Kevin Decker has written up a very informative article discussing a solution that is not only effective, but also memory efficient.

The second issue has to do with multi-stage applications and reminds developers that some old habits, like referencing the document directly, or using prototype to get a document’s element, may cause trouble. The team found a few workable alternatives that will hopefully save other developers some time debugging.

The Developer Relations team assist developers with issues on a daily basis. Their work on the Facebook app has been a testament to that. Makes one wonder what the future of the Facebook app may hold.

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Good news, developers and prospective developers. Palm has taken another step forward in developer relations and has decided to start a YouTube video podcast series.

The first episode of Palm’s video podcast series was posted yesterday and it doesn’t disappoint. Hosted by the well-known Ben Galbraith and Dion Almaer, the presentation reaffirms Palm’s deep commitment to their developer base.

This episode covered the current status of developing on webOS. Ben and Dion delve into why they love the webOS and their decision to join Palm. Listening to them, it’s hard not to like webOS. It’s also clear that they’re beyond passionate on the matter and want prospective developers to be too.

Ben and Dion continued the discussion, talking about the Plugin Development Kit (PDK) and the inclusive environment they want the webOS to be. Looking at the possible official/unofficial coding options, it seems to show a lot of potential there; normal HTML/CSS/JS webOS apps, native C plugin apps, Qt plugin apps and future Adobe AIR/Flash apps.  Palm webOS really does seem to be a "can-do" mobile operating system. Personally, I’m excited to see the fantastic HTML5-PDK hybrid apps coming out once the App Catalog opens up for them.

For a half-hour video, Ben and Dion managed to cover a lot. Everything from Project Appetite and Project Ares (with Project Appetite, we learned the site has a few neat Easter eggs) to app distribution methods and the Hot Apps contest.

It will be very exciting to see where this series goes. From the sounds of it, this could be a very popular, providing both valuable information for developers as well as a great communication tool between Palm and developers, directly from 2 big names in the company. Definitely a sign Palm wants to be involved on a more personal level with developers, welcomed with open arms.

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The webOS 1.4 update brought many new and welcomed features. One such feature was the new app loading system. It brought immediate app launch feedback and gave a pleasant splash screen to make it seem as though apps were loading a lot faster.

The splash screen system has been generally quite well received, with only a small number of people not liking it.

Keen-eyed users may have noticed several webOS apps seemed to have customized splash screen.  Apps like the web browser, tasks, and the calculator (as shown in the screenshot to the right) have customized splash screens.

Metaview is one such keen observer. On his blog, he explains how easy it is to add custom splash screens to any app.  In fact, all developers need to do is create a 320×480px PNG background image and a 256×256px PNG icon image then add then to your app’s appinfo.json file like:

"splashicon": "icon-256×256.png",
"splashBackground":"images/splash-screenshot-default.png",

Some might wonder why this neat new option is mysteriously absent from Palm’s appinfo.json breakdown. Well, put simply, that page is a bit out of date. In fact, it still refers to "miniicon", when that was officially changed to "smallicon" a while ago.  It’s very doubtful that using a custom splash screen in your app you cause any app submission guideline issues.

This is a neat bit of customization allowed on Palm’s part. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how creative developers can get in the future with their own splash graphics.

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