Pandora's CTO talks about Pre, webOS development, gaming, and small children

While we were happy just to see pictures, Tom Conrad, CTO of Pandora, is one of the lucky few to have seen in action the innards of the software that keeps things moving on the Pre. He sat down with Palm Infocenter (on the wrong end of a zero-bar concall by the sounds) to talk details of webOS software development. Conrad clarified that, despite all apps being mixtures of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, webOS is more than just a big browser -- it has direct access to local files and UI elements. However, he echoed the fears of others that this web-friendly programming interface won't exactly be well suited for gaming, expressing hope that Palm will address this with integrated Flash support or some sort of a lower-level API to appease those who want to tap that OMAP processor directly. Hit the read link to hear the whole conversation yourself.

[Thanks, Jay]

[cinematech Posted Jan 14th 2009 6:41PM]

we all play the phone games while our legs go numb

[charles hamilton Posted Jan 14th 2009 6:58PM]

Now that you mention it, I spent a hell of a lot more time playing snake on my Nokia than I do playing anything on my iPhone.

[Mindfield Posted Jan 14th 2009 7:04PM]

Not well suited to games? The hell you say.

I said it in the big expose thread on the Pre: It's awesome, and Palm really pulled a rabbit out of their hat with it, but until they finally give some love to the entertainment sector (for the first time in Palm's history) the Pre will not be considered competitive to the iPhone, Android, or even Blackberry. And that is a damn, cryin' shame, because the Pre looks like it could have had long legs if Palm hadn't cut them off at the knees. Palm had better get some cutting edge prosthetics attached (read: a real SDK with a proper programming language and access to a solid graphics API) pronto if they really want to return to relevancy. And I say this as a former Palm fan. (Owned 5 PDAs and 4 Treos over the last 8 years.)

[yrag Posted Jan 14th 2009 8:48PM]

1) I hope that Engadget-Apple/iPhone conspiracy theorist will see how ridiculous they come off after reading Chris' moronic rant: "Does Engadget have a deal with Palm on hyping this thing?? I for one aren't waiting on this craptastic gadget."

2) As someone who snatched up the original Palm Pilot and happily continued on through to still owning a Treo 650, I couldn't be more impressed with Palm's Pre/WebOS. HOWEVER, I'm worried. Why? One word: Android.

Had the Pre/WebOS come out BEFORE Android/G1 I would see a rather bright future for Palm. But it came out so far after, that Palm's achievements might be not too little, but just might be too late. The ground swell for Android has already begun. Every electronics company from no name shops in the Chinese hinterland to new companies like GiiNii, to Motorola have been caught up in Android's building avalanche. And why not? Why pay for R&D or licensing fees to Microsoft, Symbian (or even Palm for that matter) when anyone can adopt Android for free and let giant Google and independents work to develop and enhance the OS?

This will not kill Palm and WebOS (at least not for in the near term), but it will significantly blunt it's success as developer's already flocking to Android release more and better apps for it.

Frankenstein Black is quite correct—"Being late to the next gen device party they will need SALES, SALES, SALES to attract DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS, DEVELOPERS."

Developers that between the iPhone and Android may be otherwise occupied.

(Sigh) As a long time lover of Palm OS and products, I can only hope I am very wrong in my assertions.

[Karate Tortoise Posted Jan 14th 2009 8:50PM]

Ok. Either i missed it, or they still haven't said who the lucky carrier(s) will be. It better not get some awful rebranded name. I still quiver when i hear "T-Mobile Dash" or "EnV"

[Chefgon Posted Jan 14th 2009 10:18PM]

Pre is garbage to me until they release a real devkit. Writing a program in HTML, regardless of the APIs available, is crap. It's seriously limiting in what you can accomplish, and even simple programs are a hundred times easier to write with a real language than with HTML.

This "web" slant is laziness on Palm's part, no matter how they try to spin it.