The time machine is out of service this week so the Wednesday News Roundup is showing up a bit late. In the last week (and a day) the news has mostly revolved around the upcoming release for the Pixi. In addition to the Pixi we received word that Palm is allowing more developers into their pre-release program. Next, Palm previewed a new browser-based app development platform. Finally, we’ve brought on two new contributors to Pre 101: Ryan Gahl and Daniel Rodriguez. Ryan and Daniel will be doing app reviews. This is a great opportunity for developers to get noticed by the Palm community. Look forward to seeing the first reviews in the next few days.
Pixi Cometh
The Palm Pixi will officially be released on the 15th. However, it’s already making appearances and there are a number of reviews of the new smartphone. We’ve seen the a Pixi commercial (see below), which we like a lot better than the Pre commercials. Two things of note: Wal*Mart is pricing the Pixi at $30 (unbelievably low for a smartphone) and Palm has announced the availability of the first artist series back covers. Check out the links for more information about its features.
Developers Wanted
Developers who signed up with Palm to receive the SDK but who were not yet part of the pre-release program received e-mails today inviting them to participate in the developer program before it goes live in December. We have heard from internal Palm resources that they’ve got a good handle on the app process and should be able to process apps without the long delays that some developers have seen. If you want to know more about developing apps for webOS, check out webOS 101 or watch the videos of webOS School’s sessions at Iowa Code Camp.
Ares Makes War On Complexity
Recently Palm demonstrated a new webOS app development tool called Ares. Ares allows developers to create, test and deploy apps within a browser. It supports dragging and dropping of components and provides a means for developers to apply actions to them. Although developing for webOS is already very simple (requiring knowledge of JavaScript, HTML and CSS) it does require downloading and installing an SDK. Ares should open up app creation to developers with fewer resources or training in webOS. Whether this translates into better apps or not remains to be seen.
Roundup
This week also saw a couple of developments in the homebrew scene: An irc client was released and Preware updated to a new version that is capable of installing patches on webOS versions 1.1.3 to 1.3.1, so Pixi owners will be able to install on day one and have access to over 90 patches, 680 themes and 250 applications. In a welcome change, Sprint did away with conditional call forwarding tariffs so now users of Google Voice and similar services can forward calls from their phones. Lastly, Merrill Lynch had a meeting with Palm management who convinced them to upgrade Palm’s stock. As always, check us out on Twitter and feel free to comment below!