Palm demos web-based Ares SDK for webOS
By Chris Ziegler 
posted Nov 5th 2009 6:50PM
posted Nov 5th 2009 6:50PM
Currently, mobile entrepreneurs wishing to hawk their wares on the Pre (or Pixi, or unnamed webOS device of the future) use a software development kit from Palm called Mojo, a stack of Java-based tools that must be installed, studied, understood, loved, and respected before serious development can get underway. Palm sees that as a barrier of entry for web-oriented developers who want to make the leap to mobile apps, though, which is why they've crafted a new SDK called Ares that's based entirely on web technologies -- in fact, there's no install at all, apparently. Much of the interface is said to be drag-and-drop with enough JavaScript exposed to make your local .com designer feel right at home, potentially opening the app landscape to a whole new set of folks -- and considering that the App Catalog is tens of thousands of goodies behind the App Store and Android Market, they can use every loyal dev they get.
Am I the only person that sees app stores as being evil no matter what platform they are on? I mean they limit what you can do so much its unreal. Yes I know that it may be convinient having them, but I mean....Palm OS devices have always had thousands of apps available on the net...most for free, and now with WebOS being so locked down as to only allow apps to be installed via the store...I dunno, I just don't like it. Personally I think that the store should be there, but there should also be an option to install apps from the net that you download with your computer a'la Windows Mobile and Blackberry devices. Yes, yes I know that that promotes piracy, but comeon, the developers will still get there money from plenty of people that don't know any better than to use the built in app store. I dunno, just my two cents.
The Pre does have a way to install via a PC. Turn the Pre into dev mode (as easy as entering the Konami code 'upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart') and then use palm-install from the SDK or the program "webOS Quick Install" made by a third-party user.
@Joe, yes that may be true, but thats still something that not every regular user is going to know how to do. Take WinMo for example, connect your phone, drag and drop install file, run from phone and you are done...you don't have to enter the Konami code(which is damn cool but still) just to be able to do so.
Security is pretty important for something as personal as a mobile phone. Having a closed app store helps make phones resistant against hacking, and it seems to be deemed okay for phones despite us wanting app stores nowhere near our proper computers.
Every user isn't going to want to side-load applications anyway. It's my opinion that the mainstream user is going to be 100% happy with the on-device App Catalog / Store / whatever you want to call it, it's only the more technical users that will care about being able to do it, and they'll be able to easily find out how to.
Besides that, Palm has announced that you'll be able to install applications on the device just from clicking on a link in the future.
But thats not my point. My point is that the option should always be there from the start, to anyone...not just to the techie who digs around to find it. I just don't like the idea of only being able to app something to your device through a sanctioned app store. In being made to do so, it eliminates anything and everything that is not approved by the mobile carrier or whoever runs the app store. It's just like the other day, some guy made that iPhone guide and sent it to Apple to get it put in the app store, and it gets turned down for the completely asanine reason of having the word iPhone in the name. It's things like that that worry me about app stores and such. If there is one thing that the operator doesn't like, an otherwise brilliant app may get the back hand and rejected, where as on the net, most everything is available to everyone.
For Android, you can install applications directly from your browser as well as through USB.
You can 'sideload' apps on all of the platforms. Android and WinMo allow you to do it natively. WebOS and iPhone have to be unlocked/cracked first.
"I mean they limit what you can do so much its unreal."
In what real way? You only mention sideloading along with the old Palm model. The fact that the old Palm software is all over the web isn't an indicator of a limit, just that there is no central place for all those dev's to put their software. A limit would be if a central place did open and then lots of devs stopped making software because of it as opposed to loading their content into said central place and continuing on.
If you mean, central stores block a range of apps that operate in non-documented ways and as such you don't get edgy stuff (like recording video on a iPhone 3G) well sure, central stores do limit that. But the limit is on non-IT savvy people which means it's not an actual hard limit by the company but rather a user skill limit. If the user is skill limited then all the better to just block out what would require them to be skilled, to do otherwise would just create tedious and frustrating work for your help desk team.
I mean, surely you are not limited by central stores regardless of your chosen mobile everything device and if you mushed your device in the process you wouldn't call the manufacturer would you, cause you'd be an IT person and figure it out? So you are limitless
Unless of course you just can't be assed and have better things to do, which isn't a limit either, its a personal choice.
As per@Christian Walters: A little sleuthing finds the following: "....TechCrunch was at the event and reports that Palm is amending the developer agreement to allow for distribution outside of the App Catalog." It goes on to say "“Developers can simply submit their apps to Palm, and Palm will return them to a URL that they can then blog, tweet, do whatever they want to share it. When a person the clicks the URL they can easily install the app. And while Palm is providing the URL, it is not going to be reviewing the apps in any way.” This trends much more towards the Android side of app reviews (where they perform an automated test for stability, they don’t check for “appropriateness”)."
Read more about it here: http://www.precentral.net/palm-freeing-webos-development
So, indeed one can have their cupcake and eat it too.
thank you rkguy for clearing that up. I was going to reply with the same exact link. All kinds of misinformation going around here.
Actually it's really easy and once you've done it you can even install homebrew apps from the phone just like the app catalog. And Palm seems cool with it hell alot of the apps they are adding right now starting in the homebrew.
I'm excited by this and the 1.3.1 update getting the gpu involved is a great move since it's there(ah hem HTC) and flash should be with us in early 2010 maybe sooner if I get my beta. So yea we also have the impending release of pixi and the release on verizon so it will richen up a bit.
Kinda shocking now that I think about it is how much slicker webos is compared to android and really I liked the early builds of android on the G1 but the pre got me and it was everything to do with webos. I would buy a webos ver of many of th eandroid hardware.
I must confess, while the numbers of 100,000 apps or 50,000 apps seem like great things, I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of those apps would be utterly useless, with other apps that I would essentially want on my phone being available. That being said, it is a good development for Palm to demo such an SDK, as it will undoubtedly expand their marketshare and consumer base, even if only by a fraction.
I would like to see them release their own syncing software, on an unrelated issue. People shouldn't have to use iTunes, and the idea of syncing being through iTunes doesn't appeal to me.
All in all, it is nice to see that they are standing behind their phone development and pushing it forward.
Palm is going out of its way to reduce the number of apps in the App Catalog, precisely to avoid that type of situation.
Thats not to say that all the apps there currently are amazing, but the good ones are definitely not drowned out by crap the way many iphone apps are.
At the same time, they are trying to make it as easy as possible for people to develop and distribute their own apps, without forcing people to put them in the catalog. That way, hobbyists will release their apps on their own websites while the app catalog can remain for payed apps.
They work as long as they aren't lacked down. They're bad if they are heavily locked down. Can't tell you which one I think is beyond stupid though. I think Steve jobs watchs me when I'm using my iPod Touch.
*Prays to Steve jobs just in case*
And there was much rejoicing.
Palm's WebOS is losing ground to Android.
They never held ground to begin with
I totally agree, the apps in the app catalog are complete CRAP!! And i can say that because i'm a palm pre owner! I'm hoping that they will release a better SDK with deeper access for developers to create better apps!!
there is enough ground for everyone to be happy.
yeah the HTML idea isn't going to fly. Palm used to be so good with thousands of apps and they just threw it all away.
Websites like google docs have more features than native iphone apps.
What Palm needs to do is to try to optimize webkit as much as possible so that javascript doesn't drag it down.
Mojo is not Java based, but Javascript based. Huge difference.
The tools are Java-based -- Eclipse, for instance. No Java in Ares as far as we can tell.
@Chris Ziegler, Eclipse is not part of their development environment it's just the editor they picked to support. Komodo Edit's WebOS tools are far better.
But yea, you should of said the SDK tools are written in Java.
I hate to say it, but this could be groundbreaking.
Because you're finally going to stop trolling.
Have you seen how limited development for WebOS is? When you're restricted to JavaScript and HTML to design your "apps," there's only so much you can do. If and when they release a native SDK, that might be groundbreaking. This, not so much.
Javascript is not what's limiting the Pre's apps. It's the APIs that are limiting it. Fact is, you can do quite a bit with just Javascript, but Palm doesn't have APIs for all the functions you'd need finished yet, so for example, there's no microphone support yet.
I'm personally just waiting for the promise of opening up the GPU, both to speed up WebOS and to put an API for the GPU in developers hands. The sooner the CPU is relinquished of drawing duties the better, and then developers can start creating some really cool 3D apps, and at the very least can create much nicer and more polished apps.
I like the approach Ben and Dion are taking with Palm dev. They're truly trying to differentiate the development process for webOS. I'm starting to thing we won't necessarily see a native SDK, but rather more hooks for things like openGL in the web-like dev kit. Could be how things are done eventually on lots of other platforms.
Wow. I thought these guys had filed for bankruptcy. Nice to see they're still around even though that predication about all the iPhone owners going to Sprint and buying a Pre didn't work out.
Hey, then again if it did where would we get all of the Droid fans.
@cgpublic - so you only visit engadget once a year, and when you do, you start commenting on front page stories without getting caught up?
They're not bankrupt because they got LOTS of cash - three times as a matter of fact - from their Sugar Daddy and "investors" (most would call them "speculators"). Their products don't sell but they're REAL good at selling themselves.
This is both smart and good for Palm.
I got my Pre's on Jun 5, and with a little homebrew action every issue I had was addressed.
That being said, they need to implement a good desktop sync and fix the inadequate calendar.
But the Pre can be picked up and used by anyone. The hero is a little more technical.
They were aiming for the fat middle and this is the perfect device for first time smartphone owners.
I have owned every OS on a phone except symbian and am quite happy with WEBOS.
It has come farther in 5 months since release than vanilla android has in over a year.
Competition is great for all. Gotta get it on more carriers though.
Good luck developing 100,000 apps. At this pace it should take u about 5 years.
Why is the goal to have 100,000 apps? Wouldn't you rather see fewer, more polished apps that are useful instead of digging through loads of crap apps?
@willwhitworth, Oh, come on...can't you see that the best platform is the one with tons and tons of apps, even if many of them are idiotic or just badly written? Oh, wait...that would mean Windows instead of OS X.
No, no, you're right...it's all about fewer, more polished apps. Oh, wait, then that doesn't sound like the App Store.
Wow...quite a quandary you've presented for the Apple fanboy...well done, sir.
None of this makes any sense. Mojo is not Java-based. Mojo is all about javascript and was specifically made for existing web developers to easily get into.
As clearly said above, the Mojo development tools are all Java based. The actual language you program in on the Pre is Javascript, but the PC-side tools to do so are Java.
Right you are sir.
The worst thing about the Palm Pre is the gross, alien-looking girl in the commercial about the self-updating contacts. http://www.charlesadoki.com/assets/images/pre%20girl.jpg
I think this is great news. As a web developer, having the option to extend my craft to the moble market is quite exciting. Do I want to learn C++ and compete with 100K other apps...not hardly. I'm glad WebOS is staying away from things like Java since I find Flash easier to program...but that will also come later.
Eitherway, I can imagine many of these iphone and android developer thinking the same way I am, time to explore new and open territory for our apps going stale on the iphone or otherwise. Palm will extend the API sooner then later and I love the idea of how things like Ares help people like me get their feet wet.
Looking forward to when they Bring it on!!! Sorli...