The update of webOS to 1.4.5 has opened the floodgates to 3D titles from independent developers. From games like Angry Birds to apps like Multi-Touch Piano, things are finally starting to get interesting in the App Catalog. We recently featured Galcon ($2.99) in our 5 PDK titles you should own roundup, and we thought that we’d go a little further in depth with this fun, highly addictive PDK title.
These are the kind of posts we love to read: an iPhone developer with zero Palm experience successfully porting his app to webOS in two and a half days. Developer Phil Hassey’s popular Galcon fleet maneuvers game has been on the iPhone for two years now and received multiple updates to bring expanded gameplay. With the advent of the PDK, porting it to webOS wouldn’t be an overly difficult affair, and Hassey was able to pull it off in less than 24 hours worth of work, and that includes unboxing and activating his Verizon Pre Plus and getting acquainted with webOS, getting into the phone with the PDK, and other first-time development tasks.
With a few tweaks here and there to make Galcon work properly on webOS, Hassey deemed it ready to go, packaged it up, and submitted to Palm’s Developer Relations Team for sale in the App Catalog. After just a few days in the review/approval queue, Galcon is now available for $2.99 for webOS users ….who have webOS version 1.4.5. Sorry Americans, the future of webOS gaming is not quite here for you yet.
Anyway, there you have it – PDK porting at its finest.
Source: PhilHassey.com; thanks to simossoft for the tip!
Well, we’ve got more apps on deck, and those of us on Sprint, Verizon, and AT&T are left scratching our heads at the turnabout problem we have here: American webOS users are behind in receiving webOS 1.4.5. If it weren’t for the fact that the update provides proper sandboxing for PDK apps, we wouldn’t be missing much. But we are, and the App Catalog feeds prove it:
Neither of these apps are available to users running webOS 1.4.1(.1). And that’s just the tip of the appsberg, as several other PDK apps have popped up that only 1.4.5-running devices can get to. PAAAALM! Anyway, the list is after the break. You know what to do (hint: click the “Read the rest of this entry” link).