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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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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Those following the PreCentral video recording thread will know this has been a long time coming.  Back before webOS 1.3.1, video recording was a pipe dream and would require a lot of work to get done in a successful, safe manner.

However, webOS 1.3.1 changed all that.  Many of those in the private beta developer release of 1.3.1 noticed Palm’s GStreamer libraries were significantly updated. GStreamer, for those unaware, is the media framework used in the webOS and is responsible for camera operation and media playback. With webOS 1.3.1, essentially everything was there.

Evidently, Palm could release an updated camera service and an updated Camera application, and some developers thought they would. When webOS 1.3.1 went live without video recording, Zsoc (aka Prenosicator on the forums) decided not to wait for Palm and figured out a plan to create a 3rd party video recorder.

Zsoc rebuilt a modified GStreamer binary, to fix an issue that otherwise would require a pre-set recording time. With that in hand and Zsoc’s understanding of GStreamer, I worked with him to build a custom service for video recorder and he built a webOS application frontend (with assistance from Roy from Pre101).

Well, it’s my pleasure to announce the first alpha testing is now underway. Currently things are pretty limited and by no means polished. That said, it records at 30 FPS 480×320px resolution and it supports AAC, AMRNB, and MP3 audio encoding as well as MPEG-4, H.263, and H.264/AVC video encoding. In addition it supports mp4 and 3gp file output, with the option to enable the camera’s flash while recording.  Oh, and the best part, the videos can be replayed in the Pre’s video player!

For those adventurous, and aware of the many risks of using alpha software, the GstService and Precorder installation information/ipk links can be found at its wiki page.

Update from Dieter: How about a sample video? It’s after the break!

read more

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Coreplayer has been a longtime favourite of the PalmOS community (not to mention Windows Mobile and Symbian).  Its vast collection of codecs, expansive options, and quick speed have made it arguably one of the best video players for the PalmOS, and now it looks like we may be seeing Coreplayer, in some form, on the WebOS.

Not too long ago, on the CoreCodec Community Forums, while talking about a future 2.0 release, BetaBoy happened to mention:

If we do release it for Palm… it might be released as a ‘last time thank you’ for their support… but note that we are already migrating to the Pre’s WebOS. The other thing that why some Palm ppl might still want it on their older devices is the new touch UI.

Very welcome news given how limited the existing player is.  That one statement leaves lots of questions out there.  Thankfully, not to long ago, BetaBoy also paid our forums a visit and gave us a view at some of their plans for the WebOS:

You’ll likely see CorePlayer on the Pre before Android….. we all have Pre’s here now(if that gives you and indication of what we are doing). [...]

We are doing the same thing that we have always done… but mostly for our OEM customers with CorePlayer API for Linux…. utilize the CORE of CP in API form to fully integrate it into the WebOS UI. In other words we are playing nice and will not being using our CoreUI interface we use for all the other platforms we support.

On the hardware side of things… this is where I don’t want to say much atm, but we do plan to support the native codecs when ever possible, no diff then we do now for all our other platforms.

On the SDK… we are hopeful that with each release it matures and that Palm (like Android) has a nice roadmap for native apps…. and when its ready, so are we.

Hopefully we’ll see Coreplayer for the WebOS before the next generation Pre gets announced. Perhaps CoreCodec could consider homebrew for the early basic releases, similar to TCPMP before going fully retail.

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Following up on the story we posted not too long ago, the Mitch Allen "Application Basics" free webcast went off without a hitch. Thankfully, for those like myself who missed it, O’Reilly Media has uploaded the recording of it to YouTube, though it looks like the last few minutes were cut off.

This is of course the second webcast in the series and as such, covers the second chapter of the WebOS book, of the same name.  While the first webcast/book chapter was a general overview and introduction of what the WebOS is like, this webcast was a perfect introduction to the fundamentals of the WebOS.  The appinfo.json file and basics of scenes and their controllers are explained quite well.

This webcast series is just the thing that I’ve been wanting Palm to do; not only just giving an SDK and the option to buy a book on how to program, but actually engaging the developer community.  What better way that a free video webcast to explain the book and the WebOS platform, both explaining how the various components work, but also giving practical examples of usage.

If anyone reading this has ever thought about programming for the WebOS, I highly recommend this webcast series, and await eagerly for the next one.

Update: The Palm Developer Network Blog has some Q&A up from the event.

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Palm’s own Mitch Allen is teaming up with O’Reilly Media once again to bring us another free webcast on WebOS development.  Mitch Allen, Palm’s Vice President and Software Chief Technology Officer, previously did another WebOS development webcast way back in February, so it’s good to see some follow-up now that the device is out in the public in two countries.

The webcast is scheduled September 9th at 10am PST, will last 1 hour, and is titled "Application Basics."

This session begins with an overview of the basic webOS application structure and a demo of the core SDK developer tools, and includes detail presentations on the application launch lifecycle, and Mojo controllers and methods.

Keen readers might remember the title "Application Basics" as the name of the second chapter of the Palm WebOS book.  Indeed this webcast will be covering this chapter, as an aid to the book (and a nice resource for those who haven’t bought the book).

That’s not all. It appears Mitch Allen will be doing a webcast for each chapter of the book in a webcast series:

The webcasts in this series follow the Developing Applications for webOS: A Preview webcast (based on Chapter 1) presented in February 2009, with in-depth presentations on individual chapters in the book. Each webcast will cover concepts and background material, followed by a detailed example built using a sample application, News. Over the course of the series you will step through the construction of the complete application.

This is perfect opportunity for those interesting in developing for the WebOS to take a stab at it, following this free webcast series and learning how to make an application that takes full advantage of the Mojo SDK.

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Palm has started a new round of App Catalog submissions. Earlier today Early Access Program participants got the email from Palm letting them know it’s time.  Currently it’s just open to ‘Early Access Program’ developers, but the email hints at full open submissions in the near future.

[...] As Palm moves forward with our Application Catalog development, we’re looking for a select set of high-caliber developers who want to be on the inside track as we shift gears to the next phase (and before we open the flood gates to application submissions from the thousands and thousands of developers who have downloaded the Public Mojo SDK).

The email then goes on to describe how you can make an early submission, get a chance for increased exposure through Palm’s marketing, and get ‘personalized attention.’  Palm also wants deets like when you expect it to be complete, business model of your app: free or paid or ad-supported, what country you want it available for, etc.  Here’s some links to check before you submit: Application Checklist, Top UI Tips, Performance Optimization, and WebOS User Interface Guidelines [pdf link].

Meanwhile, our tipsters have tracked down yet another intriguing job opportunity at Palm: Lead App Catalog Administrator. We have to say: just reading through this description makes us very optimistic that Palm’s App Catalog policies won’t look like Apple’s mess:

The successful candidate will be a skilled communicator adept at resolving complex, sensitive issues. This position will be working under an aggressive schedule to cultivate developer relationships and resolve escalations in a timely manner. Needs to be able to organize and prioritize a heavy workload and be able to thrive in a fast-paced environment and has strong customer service skills.

So if you’re waiting for App Catalog goodness, be patient — Palm is clearly moving as fast as humanly possible without tripping and landing on their face. If you can’t be patient, you know what to do.

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Oh how we love job listings that reveal tantalizing details of upcoming plans.  We especially love these two listings that just recently came to our attention.

First off is a job that was apparently listed way back on May 8th on Palm’s career page:

VPN Network Engineer

To work with the Linux networking components to create a great networking experience for Palm’s WebOS platform. This includes modifying open-source software to meet the needs for an embedded device, developing and maintaining WebOS specific VPN networking components.

Looks like those who wanted VPN on the Pre may get their wishes. It is a bit distressing this listing was posted back in May yet still hasn’t been filled.  Hopefully Palm will find a developer for this soon.

The second job listing in question was posted on the Mary-Margaret Network and really is just what the doctor ordered:

Game Frameworks Engineer

Palm is looking for developers who are passionate about gaming, handhelds, mobile communication and the possibilities for Palm in the gaming arena. The software developers we’re looking for will have strong mathematical/analytical skills and will be effective team members in a small, focused initiative.
 
Responsibilities: Design, implement, debug, and optimize frameworks for game development

Wow!  This job listing is pretty fresh, being posted only on June 29th, but once the position gets filled, it’ll really give something for developers to look forward to. Then disgruntled iPhone developers won’t be able to brag how our Mojo SDK is bad for gaming (even though from the start Palm’s been upfront about that). Aw, who are we kidding? They’ll probably still complain anyway.

The way I see it, either Palm plans to create some gaming framework that has access via HTML/CSS/JavaScript but is run via a native graphics engine, or this our first hint of a native Linux SDK in the works. Though, as much as I’d like a native SDK, chances are we won’t be seeing one for a while yet.

Thanks to Lisa and crazytexan for the tips.

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