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We’ll catch up on two weeks’ worth of news stories this week.  Over the last two weeks a number of interesting things happened, among them preDevCamp wound up, Palm opened the App Catalog for Beta submissions and a tempest in a teapot surrounding Palm collecting usage information.  Without further ado…

PreDevCamp Wrapup

August 8th saw groups all around the globe meet to learn and discuss programming webOS, the operating system behind the Palm Pre.  Several cities, including our hometown, also received free copies of the first webOS programming book.  A number of applications were written in the week following preDevCamp, including our own Match ‘Em, and there is a contest going on over at PreCentral.net.  Vote here.  Voting ends on the 22nd and we can use your votes!

Here’s a video of the preDevCamp meeting at Palm headquarters in Sunnyvale, CA taken by Marco van Hylckama Vlieg.

The preDevCamp in the Washngton DC/Baltimore area was hosted by Alice Carback.  A number of people showed up and we talked about setting up the development tools, writing first applications and learning how to use the tools Palm provides.  A general good time was had by all.

Palm Opens App Catalog

On Tuesday, Palm announced the opening of the App Catalog for submissions.  Now app authors can have their applications considered for release in the app catalog.  Here are the details:

• You can charge a one-time fee for the download of your application.
• Initially, the user base for e-commerce will be limited to the United States.
• Developers will receive 70 percent of revenues generated through application sales (less applicable sales taxes).
• webOS users will pay for their application purchases using credit cards and will download apps directly to their webOS device.

With that and Palm extending a hand to game developers, it’s definitely an exciting time to be a webOS developer.    Expect to see more Pre101 applications arriving in the App Catalog in the near future.

Palm’s Data Collection Brouhaha

As originally reported by Joey Hess and discussed at PreCentral the Palm Pre gathers information about device usage and location.  The long and the short of it is that Palm’s privacy policy spells out what information they collect.  Palm issued the following statement to clarify their use of collected data:

“Palm takes privacy very seriously, and offers users ways to turn data collecting services on and off. Our privacy policy is like many policies in the industry and includes very detailed language about potential scenarios in which we might use a customer’s information, all toward a goal of offering a great user experience. For instance, when location based services are used, we collect their information to give them relevant local results in Google Maps. We appreciate the trust that users give us with their information, and have no intention to violate that trust.”

Much of the information that Palm collects is collected for the purpose of making the advanced features of the phone work.  Nothing appears out of line with industry standards.  However, it’s good to be aware of the information that is being collected and, if you’re concerned, pursue their opt-out option.  Of course, if you’re looking for real data collection head over to Data Net.

Other News

The Palm Experience rolls on to The Grove after a successful run at Americana at Brand.  If you happen to be in LA drop by to get the experience and report back to us.  For those who are interested in an On-Screen Keyboard webOS Internals gave us a peek at the work they’re doing.  There were also rumors that the next version of iTunes would support third-party devices but the source of those rumors appears to be faked screen-shots.  Lastly, Palm seems to be turning up the heat on marketing.  According to the Palm Blog we’ll see the Palm Pre popping up in a number of places.  As always, share your news stories with us in the comments or by Twitter.