CES 2011 is just a few weeks away, and we’re all assuming (and hoping) that Palm announces some awesome new devices to replace the aging hardware that’s out there right now. At this point, given the current marketshare numbers, what might be needed more than the new hardware is a new consumer mindset pertaining to Palm.

According to the latest numbers from Nielsen, Palm’s marketshare stands at a paltry 1.3% in the United States, and we’d reason that international marketshare is around that, if not lower in countries where Palm products are even available.

With Palm’s market penetration so low, the question weighing heavily on our minds right now is how do Palm and HP turn around their fortunes with webOS – especially if we need to wait some time for new hardware? The answer lies not with rebuilding marketshare. No, the answer is to reboot the public perception and start over. webOS is a fantastic operating system, but it was already fighting an uphill battle against iOS when it launched, and has since been eclipsed by Android and is facing competition for the bottom rung from, of all companies, Microsoft with their turn-the-smartphone-OS-on-its-ear Windows Phone 7.

In this mess of smartphone operating systems, how is Palm to differentiate itself and make the case for why Joe Consumer should buy a webOS phone over an iPhone or Droid? Reboot, reset, and start over. Palm needs to be aggressive with their advertising. It can’t be “We’re still here.” No, the message must be “We are here. This is why we’re awesome.”

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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!

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This post is the second in the series describing the usage and implementation of the preview image widget developed for the Featured Apps app. The first post can be found here.
Today’s posts covers the general implementation details of the widget as well as the movement and animation implementation.
Layout
Implementation of this widget is fairly straightforward from [...]

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We can’t say how long this will say online, but somebody going by webos1337 has posted a video of some of the features of webOS 2.0 up on YouTube. It includes just a little more detail than what we’ve already seen from the leaked screenshots. Specifically, we get a tiny peek at how card stacks are managed and a bit of a look at how the Just Type interface will look.

It’s also as clear to us as ever (as it didn’t seem to be to the internet at large for some reason) that the MobileMe and DropBox ‘integration’ is simply a feature of QuickOffice and not of webOS proper. Unfortunately, it also looks like QuickOffice’s support for some office file formats leaves a bit to be desired.

We are intrigued to see that just a little more functionality seems to have been added to the notification dashboard. The detail-oriented among us might also notice that the launcher now looks and feels a bit more like a standard webOS ‘card’ instead of an overlay drawer.

Rahul Sood has said that what we’ve seen so far with we’ve seen thus far with webOS 2.0 isn’t the full story, but if nothing else this latest leak should give some developers yet more reason to be pumped for webOS 2.0.

Thanks Maydae23!

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A note for developers: if you submit an app to the App Catalog that you built with the webOS 2.0 SDK, it’ll be denied. Problem is, Palm’s not quite accepting those apps just yet – they’ll only take apps for currently-released version of webOS. Developer Geoff Gauchet noticed this when he submitted an update to Neato. Gauchet hadn’t baked any webOS 2.0 features into Neato, he’d merely packaged it up with the 2.0 SDK. With the app rejected, Gauchett thought it best to (1) fix it and (2) let the rest of the developer community know how it’s done. And so, we’ll point you over to Zhephree.com for the directions so you don’t have to go an install the webOS 1.4.5 SDK too.

Source: Zhephree.com

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We’ve been speculating about how Palm would pull off a tablet or other keyboard-lacking device, and that of course would require some manner of virtual keyboard. While Palm clearly didn’t announce any sort of addition to webOS with the reveal of 2.0 earlier this week, that doesn’t mean that it couldn’t happen. In fact, an anonymous tipster pointed out to us that the /etc/palm/luna.conf file in the webOS 2.0 SDK contains not just a reference to a virtual keyboard, but subsection all to itself titled [VirtualKeyboard]. There’s one value in that subsection, VirtualKeyboardEnabled=false, and right now the SDK doesn’t have any files that would be enabled by changing that value to true. But this is still a sign that Palm is indeed prepping a keyboardless slate device, and we won’t see it until webOS 2.0 hits. Or maybe 2.0 will bring the virtual keyboard to devices like the Pre…

UPDATE: Due to this leak, Palm has decided to suspend processing of new applications to the Early Access Program. Developers up to this point only needed to be registered with the Palm Developer Center and have an app in the App Catalog for apply for access. According to webOSdev on Twitter, Palm is currently reevaluating their restrictions on access to early releases of the SDK (developers are required to sign an NDA) and may reopen admission to the Early Access Program in the future. For the sake of all developers, we hope that happens soon.

UPDATE 2: Palm has reopened developer admissions, saying on Twitter "We’re accepting early access admissions again. No reason to make everyone pay the price here."

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We’ve covered the new features (that we know about) coming in webOS 2.0 from a user-perspective with a side of development. But the real focus of today’s announcement is the webOS 2.0 Beta SDK availability. This new SDK is a Big Deal for two reasons:

• webOS is even more compatible with web-technology
• It’s easier than ever to create differentiating features that can only happen on webOS 2.0

The former is a big deal for bringing more developers into the fold. The latter is a big deal for any developers who want to see webOS succeed. Read on for our thoughts on what opportunities for cool apps and features can be found in the new APIs coming with webOS 2.0.

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webOS 2.0 is due out later this year and Palm has dropped some serious details about what’s coming in the new OS to us. In addition to lots of goodness for developers in the form of new APIs and a SDK Beta download available today, we have the details on some user-facing features. Here’s the short version:

• Palm’s multitasking ‘card’ metaphor is getting a refresh with Stacks
• Universal Search is getting majorly beefed up with ‘Quick Actions,’ will be opened to developers, and rebranded as Just Type
• Apps can have custom Touchstone at-a-glance views with Exhibition
• Synergy is opening up to developers
• HTML5 and Javascript support is much improved
• Hybrid PDK/SDK apps will be fully supported

Palm’s announcements today are primarily directed toward developers, so much of what you’re going to see is about frameworks and not features – the killer user-facing features will come from webOS developers and (hopefully) from Palm themselves in future announcements. There’s still plenty to dig into with the above features, though, so join us after the break as we get a peek into what Palm has planned for webOS 2.0.

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Palm has released the webOS 2.0 Beta SDK to developers – go grab it at Palm’s Developer Center (developers will need to sign up for the early access program). The SDK is emulator-only for now, but developers can use it to get a glimpse as some of the many features coming in webOS 2.0 – see our full breakdown.

The Beta SDK will give Early Access developers their first look at the new features available to them, including Stacks, improved Synergy support, Just Type & Quick Actions, Hybrid PDK/SDK apps, improved Javascript support, Mojo Core, improved HTML5, and more. Palm’s Touchstone-based Exhibition feature isn’t present in this release, but should be available soon. 

Developers interested in getting their hands on the webOS 2.0 SDK should send an email to pdc@palm.com to join the Early Access Program. To be eligible, you need to be both a registered developer and have an app in the Palm App Catalog. If you’re already registered with the Early Access Program, all you need do is log in and get to it.

Palm says they’re committed to opening up webOS with 2.0 and extending what’s already great about it. Developers – how’s it look to you?

Source: Palm Developer Center

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For Featured Apps we wanted to provide an attractive means for users to view the application preview images. Initially we investigated attempting to scale the ImageView widget to provide this functionality but its logic is tuned for displaying a single image and did not fit this design well, thus the creation of the new widget.
This [...]

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