Frank’s article covers the development, from scratch, of a new Canvas game, “Far Out Fowl,” sparing no details. He describes coding techniques, game design decisions, and user interface considerations. He even takes us through his process for deciding on Canvas as the tool of choice for this particular game. The game includes sound effects, accelerometer-based controls, and alien chickens. What more could you want in a game? Have fun!

The PDK is a new component of the webOS SDK, letting developers use C and C++ alongside the web technologies that power the SDK, and even mix them seamlessly within a single application. The PDK brings new functionality to webOS, including immersive 3D graphics, and gives developers who have built games for other platforms an easy way to bring their titles to the webOS platform.

The webOS PDK takes its name from the way that C / C++ components integrate into webOS applications. The webOS platform is built on web technologies, with an application environment built on the WebKit browser engine. Components built with the PDK “plug in” to webOS apps using the same mechanism that supports desktop browser plug-ins.

The webOS PDK incorporates the widely used multimedia library SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) and the OpenGL ES graphics API, making it easy for developers to port existing code to webOS. The PDK includes its own tools to support development and debugging of plug-ins for webOS applications, and (like the webOS SDK) will allow development on the Windows, Mac and Linux platforms (though only Windows and Mac are supported in the public beta).

(Note that distribution of apps built with the public beta PDK will require functionality provided in an upcoming Palm webOS update, to be released during the middle of this year. The current version of webOS supports limited distribution of games built with the private early-access PDK, but the technologies and processes that enable this limited distribution don’t allow for wider distribution.)

We’ve updated the Developer Portal with all the information you’ll need to get started. The Developer and Reference Libraries have new “Plug-in” sections that talk about the new tools and APIs, and describe how to get up and running quickly.

So what are you waiting for? Head over to the Developer Portal, download the PDK and start developing today!

We’ll  kick off an exciting week at the Flash Gaming Summit, hosted by Mochi Media, on Monday March 8th at UCSF’s Mission Bay Conference Center. This one-day conference brings together the leaders in the Flash gaming industry, and Palm is proud to sponsor and support the growth of the Flash community. We’ll be showing cool demos and will have some fun giveaways. We’ll also have news about upcoming enhancements to the webOS developer experience that you won’t want to miss! We’d love for you to share this exciting day with us.

Hot on the heels of the Flash Gaming Summit, Palm will be out in full force at the Game Developers Conference at Moscone Center, March 11 – 13.  Come see us in booth #2016 to learn more about how game developers are benefiting from the first-mover advantage in the webOS app ecosystem. Learn how webOS makes it easy to develop and distribute your apps, and to increase the profitability of your app business. Plus, get hands-on with demos of the hottest new game titles.

As previously announced, we’ll be releasing a beta of our Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit. GDC attendees will be able to learn more at 3:00 pm on Friday when Jeff Bush, Palm’s Director of webOS Graphics & Gaming, will be leading a session on how to create games with the PDK.

See you there!

New features include:

• Enhanced Inbox – Now, your inbox lets you compose, send, and reply, so you can always access your Facebook messages.
• Photo albums – Now you can view photo albums from all your friends, not just the photos in their news feeds. Uploading photos is easier as well, and includes the ability to add captions.
• Profiles – The new app lets you view users’ profiles, whether they are your friends or not. View and post to their walls, view their information, and see their photo albums (subject to privacy settings, of course).
• Events and birthdays – Now you can see upcoming birthdays from your friend list as well as upcoming events.
• Friend search – Easily find your friends using the Friend Search feature. This takes you to their profile, where you can see and post to their wall, view their information, and look at their photos.

This being the developer blog, what’s interesting to me is how this application was developed. The Developer Relations team took on the task of rewriting this application as a way to work on a “real” project and get a deeper understanding of how our developer tools and documentation work (and sometimes don’t work) for our developers.

Working on this application has given us a really detailed look at the current state of our tools and documents. Here in Developer Relations, we’ve been sitting down and evaluating the results and putting plans in place to remove as many of the speedbumps and potholes as we can, as quickly as we can.

I think you’ll be very impressed with the quality of this updated Facebook application. It’s even more impressive when you realize that while Ben and Dion, who did most of the heavy lifting on this update, are experienced programmers, they haven’t been webOS programmers very long. It’s a good example of how existing skills can transfer to the webOS platform and get a new developer up to speed and building good applications quickly.

Now that we have this rewritten-from-scratch version of the Facebook app out, we’re starting to look at what further enhancements we can add to it.  We plan to continue using this application to push ourselves as webOS developers, and to step into the shoes of our developers and live with the tools we give them. We think that’s the best way to make sure those tools are the best tools we can possibly build. If we aren’t working with them daily, it’s easy to think they’re better than they are. By making sure we’re always creating “real” applications, we have no excuses not to make sure that our developer environment is the best it can be.

And that’s exactly what we expect it to be. We still have some work, but now we know what needs to be done, and we’re working to make it happen.

With the latest update to My Apps, we’ve added to the flexibility you already have with app distribution. You now can choose whether or not to include your application in the RSS feeds. So, if you have a beta application that you’re not quite ready for the world to see, but you want your friends to be able to test it, now you can.

On the “Application Basics” page, you’ll find a new checkbox labeled “Include this app in Feeds.” If you check the box, website developers who subscribe to the feeds can list your application on their websites. Otherwise, it will be left out. You’ll still get a unique application URL to distribute the way YOU want, and your users will still get notified of updates in the App Catalog. Note that this doesn’t mean distribution is restricted – anybody with the URL will be able to download your app. But it does give you a greater degree of control.

We hope you enjoy this feature. As always, if you have any questions or comments about it, we’d love to hear from you.

The Palm Hot Apps Program rewards developers of the hottest webOS applications with a total of $1 million. The developer of the free webOS application that’s downloaded the most between February 1, 2010, and May 31, 2010 will receive $100,000. The developer of the paid-for webOS app that generates the most revenue during the same period will also receive $100,000.

Developers of other top free and paid apps will also receive cash awards, as follows:

• The next 20 apps in each category: $10,000 each
• The next 200 apps in each category: $1,000 each

Only downloads made between 12:00 midnight, February 1, 2010, and 11:59 p.m., May 31, 2010, will be considered for the awards. If you don’t have an app in the catalog today, you have plenty of time to get going and get one published and in contention for the prizes.

If you haven’t programmed in webOS yet, getting started is easy. Download the SDK, check out the tutorial and get yourself going!

palm-run: package, run, launch and then see log messages talks about one of his early tools for automating some of the recurring tasks in a development cycle, and of course, his code’s available for you to borrow and use (and improve and send back for the rest of the community, of course!)

I am having fun taking my Web skillz and applying them to mobile with webOS. It is obviously important that I learn about the platform. I want to understand the limitations, and get a feel for the SDK so I have opinions on where to take it (Fortunately, the community gives us great feedback,keep it coming!).

As I develop applications I quickly see repetitive tasks that fit into my workflow.

Gearing up your applications to be touched and the horizontal scroll is an interesting look at some of the things you need to consider in taking content designed for the desktop and making it usable in a mobile browser.

An excerpt:

The two biggest challenges I have found so far on the design side have been dealing with the real estate available (screen size) and the touchy feely-ness of the device.

We have been trained on the desktop, thanks to the mouse as our pointer interface, to click lots of buttons. The tactile feedback that we get is the button looking depressed, but that is about it. The mouse has a lot going for it. The fact that I have a set of states due to the fact that there is a difference between having the cursor located somewhere, and having a click on that location is useful. It can be especially useful for discoverability. As a user mouses around you can unveil information “hey, if you click this button X will happen mate!” It also has the nice side effect that your hand can rest on it.

Martin says:

Today we’re proud to announce the official opening of Palm’s worldwide developer program, giving developers around the globe the opportunity to develop and distribute applications on Palm webOS devices.

As long-time advocates of the web platform, we are absolutely thrilled that all developers now have the opportunity to experience the convergence of mobile devices with a native web platform. Palm’s webOS allows developers to use web technologies to create compelling applications. The result is a platform that offers a low barrier to entry (these days, who doesn’t know HTML, JavaScript and CSS?), high levels of productivity (the term “web time” was coined for a reason), and powerful integration capabilities.

Of course, the distribution model for a platform is at least as important as the development model. Like many other mobile platforms, our developer program offers an on-device App Catalog experience. This is a key element in our strategy to deliver an on-device application sales channel.

However, many developers want more flexibility than a single catalog can provide. Further, other developers want to avoid the review process that of necessity must accompany a branded catalog like ours. And, consumers as well are interested in a variety of ways to discovery relevant applications. It’s difficult for one app catalog to fit all.

That’s why as part of the launch of our program we’re pleased to offer developers a choice: the ability to bypass our catalog and review process entirely through what we call Web Distribution. In this model, you simply upload your application and within a few minutes to an hour you receive a URL which you can then distribute to users however you like.

What’s more, we want to facilitate the creation of other application discovery mechanisms. We want to see the community explore innovative new ways to present applications to users to help them discover the next great app–be that ranking mechanisms, directories, marketing integrations, social sharing and more. To this end, we’re making data feeds (in RSS 2.0 format) of all Palm webOS applications available to the world. We know and trust the community can help us build great Palm experiences.

With Web Distribution and the application feeds, we’re strengthening our relationship with the web community–a partnership first made when Palm made the bold bet of building a mobile operating system based on the web. Let’s work together to deepen this relationship in 2010. The web has a long, rich history of helping consumers connect with relevant content and applications, and we’re excited to continue that tradition with Palm applications.

For more details on the developer program–and to start developing webOS applications today–visit developer.palm.com or email us at devrel@palm.com. We can’t wait to hear your thoughts on the developer program, our SDK, and get any other feedback you may have.

Ben and Dion
Directors of Developer Relations
Palm