Palm's Ares SDK goes to public beta

After a brief private testing period, Palm's interesting Ares software development package has made its way into a public beta phase. Breaking tradition from Mojo -- Palm's other webOS SDK -- the big news with Ares is that the dev environment is fully web-based with no additional tools needed for apps to get whipped into reality. Not only does that make getting started a breeze (theoretically, anyway), but Palm thinks that this is the way to bring mobile development to a whole new category of folks who may not come from traditional dev backgrounds -- they want to pull in web geeks who've got the ideas and design experience but not necessarily the hardcore coding background that you'd normally need to take the next Air Hockey to production. Grab that sucker now and let us know what you come up with, alright? We'll split the profits 60 / 40.

[glenskey Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:33PM]

but... that looks.. easy

what is this magic??!

[MoonWalkerCTE Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:41PM]

@glenskey

Because thats not the screen where you enter the coding here you can test the application or add/modify the UI

[a dumb cat Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:44PM]

@glenskey

Can't wait to give it a try! I am one of the people Chris is talking about: great design ideas but no significant coding background (does Basic count? lol, jk).

[streetstealth Posted Dec 17th 2009 7:09PM]

Compared to a lot of things, though, this is definitely easy! I have been trying it out just now, and I have to say:

I am just absolutely floored at how well it works. A full application development suite based in the browser. This is what people have been talking about when they gush over the possibilities of HTML5. Someone went and did it and it's Palm.

[Abdel Posted Dec 17th 2009 8:21PM]

@glenskey Tried the first one when it came out, and got discouraged very quick despite the fact I created helloworld!
I'm shooting for game development for Android and iPhone using a solid game engine like Unity or Torque

[jabbathewocket Posted Dec 18th 2009 1:50AM]

@streetstealth unfortunately its a stillborn idea because the 'web apps' that come ouf of this 'sdk' are still just webpages masquerading as apps..

It didnt work on iPhone, its not gonna work for palm.. because whatever gizmos you create for webos, are gonna be cross platform to any platform with a browser.. (at least the purported commercial apps.. ) and what this means for the end result is.. .. sadly.. Lowest Common Denominator status.. Commercial houses will not care that the webos SDK exists at all they will put the development behind stuff that will run in any browser OR into real apps for whatever platform management decides is "important/winning/etc" at that projects inception.

That platform will NEVER be webos.. because at its core its NOT a platform.. any more than "sidebar gadgets, yahoo/google desktop widgets, apple whatever they call the dashboard widgets etc..

And the quicker fanbois realize that the phone is a featurephone with a browser, and embrace the fact that they will never get real apps on it other than the ones palm pays heavily to get on the platform.. the quicker the company will fold/get sold/etc

[Federaly Posted Dec 18th 2009 3:25AM]

@jabbathewocket

Haha you call the fanboy card yet you sound like you eat too many Apples youself.

[nerd Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:33PM]

this also means there are gonna be a lot of lame apps flooding the palm store

[ZeRoCo0L Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:39PM]

@nerd

And there aren't lame apps that flood any other app stores?

[mrkalel Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:40PM]

@nerd Yea...lord knows those 100k, or 16k apps in the other stores are ALLLL gems...

[nerd Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:44PM]

oh don't get me wrong this is great. we'll just have to sift through the 1000s of fart apps before we find the good stuff.

[DrDr Posted Dec 17th 2009 10:35PM]

@nerd

Which is why Palm is going to start charging $50 to submit an app to the Catalog, to prevent idiots from posting up their fart apps that are never going to sell a single copy.

[pk Posted Dec 17th 2009 11:09PM]

@nerd

having a bunch of useless apps may be exactly what it needs to go against the whole 100k apps apple is marketing though...

[xirsteon Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:34PM]

Avalanche of Palm news?

[derX Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:43PM]

@xirsteon

If this is an avalanche, you live in Palm Springs.

[DaHarder Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:35PM]

Nice...

Getting ready for that onslaught of new developers that will be jumping on board when they port over to Verizon... No Doubt

[Yoda Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:35PM]

/facePalm

That took wayyy too long. It would have been much more successful if they'd have released it right as WebOS came out.

[smartmouth Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:39PM]

@Yoda

Late than never, better is.

-Yoda

[derX Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:44PM]

@smartmouth

FAIL! Yoda.

Force, surrender yours please.

[smartmouth Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:42PM]

Now, to wait for the wait of apps that we've been all...wait for it..waiting for. I shall patiently wait for GOOD aps. Waiting.

[DaHarder Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:46PM]

@smartmouth

As long as those apps you've been 'waiting for' are of high quality, your patience will be rewarded.

Remember Developers: Q.O.Q = Quality OVER Quantity

[smartmouth Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:52PM]

@DaHarder

See, exactly my point. Put it this way, would you want to sleep with 100 rosie o donnels? Or one smart chick who'se a 10?

[DrDr Posted Dec 17th 2009 10:37PM]

@smartmouth

Rosie O'Donnel is a smart chick, but shes like a size 16 at least.

[Klenor Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:43PM]

OMGGGGGG !!!!

Why google doesnt look at this and jump off the BRIDGE!!!!!!!!!

I see this IDE tools and it makes me cry ... when I think of those xml-s in Android.

Respect PALM !!!

[N900 Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:44PM]

Time to get into the kitchen and cook up some cool apps!

[sterim Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:49PM]

It want let me log in to it :@
Grrrrr

[Xudd Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:52PM]

I just don't understand why Google/Palm are creating these annoying scripting/hybrid languages and IDE's when they can just write a few C/C++ libraries which offer some low-level functionality and let me write some native C/C++ code! Then you don't have to worry about having to optimize the interpreter, creating stupid hybrid languages, optimizing bytecode, implementing a JIT (eww), etc, etc.

[Klenor Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:55PM]

@Xudd I think they dont know too :D

P.S. Plz dont put Palm and Google UI editors in same sentence...
It hurts ...

[mondayjblack Posted Dec 17th 2009 5:58PM]

So speaking as someone who coded one the old fashioned way, I must say "THANK YOU PALM!".

It'll make coordination between dev and design so much easier.

[hs2716 Posted Dec 17th 2009 6:08PM]

theoretically

[Blayze04 Posted Dec 17th 2009 6:17PM]

Love it. Really excited for Palm. Also John Rubinstein confirmed 1.3.5 for this month that removes the App Limit, Adds speed, and performance. Ill take it!!

[WeirdHero Posted Dec 17th 2009 6:21PM]

Palm is acting like it has deep pockets.
Why on earth did they develop two SDK's?

[jhoff80 Posted Dec 17th 2009 7:30PM]

@WeirdHero It's not two different SDKs, the article title is incorrect. Ares is a development tool / integrated development environment, not a separate SDK.

Code that is done in Ares still uses the exact same Mojo SDK, this just makes it much simpler to code.

My big issue with it is that it won't import existing applications. Basically, anyone who writes an application by hand is most likely going to use HTML for the layout. Ares does the layout in Javascript, and can't display HTML layouts. So basically if you want to use Ares, you have to start that application in Ares.

But otherwise, wow, I'm impressed. This makes development much easier for people who aren't as advanced at JS/HTML/CSS coding as others.

Experts writing advanced applications will probably still want to do things by hand for more control, but this makes things much simpler.

[gerrrg Posted Dec 17th 2009 6:25PM]

So the point is...up until now, their current SDK is the reason why they have less than 200 apps?

Or maybe it's because the Pre probably still hasn't hit that 1M mark?

[krische Posted Dec 17th 2009 6:44PM]

@gerrrg And by 200 apps you mean over 800? The app catalog had 200 apps back in July.

Also, they announced today that they sold 784,000 phones the past quarter. Seeing as the pre has been out for 2 quarters, it's a safe bet to guess that the Pre has sold over 1 million. Palm just doesn't announce sales for specific handsets.

[Blayze04 Posted Dec 17th 2009 7:20PM]

@gerrrg The Pre has long passed the 1 million mark. And there are more than 800 apps in the App Catalog. Just FYI. If you are going to make a point it is good to partially know some facts.

[martynmcfarquhar Posted Dec 17th 2009 6:58PM]

Wow, that looks like an excellent app development program, a bit like REALBasic but more swish!

This is exactly the reason Palm deserves more praise, and why they shouldn't still be in debt, webOS is fantastic, and developer support is getting better and better.

I'm keeping my eye on you Palm, you may coax me away from Android yet ; )

[jabbathewocket Posted Dec 18th 2009 1:54AM]

@martynmcfarquhar because they created a "webapp construction kit" that embraces the level of fail that their "no os phone that runs web widgets only" rather than spending the last year getting a proper bare metal SDK out?

Palm is done, this is just a last hurrah hoping to let the end users stuck on the platform for the next 2 years whip together some custom crapgadgets for themselves since NOONE in the real development space will be doing it.

[martynmcfarquhar Posted Dec 18th 2009 5:32AM]

@jabbathewocket

They already have the Mojo SDK, which is how apps have been made up to now. So people who need those extra tools and space have something available to them.

This is innovative because it's easy for non-programmers to get started (something Android could really do with), and it's non platform specific as it runs in a web browser (so you don't need a Mac...ahem, iPhone). Palm have identified this as a good niche to get developers on board, and it's a brilliant idea.

Yes they need more apps and yes they need APIs for the GPU, but those are coming. WebOS is still a baby, where was Android when it first released? Give them time, Palm have something great on their hands and it only harms the consumer if they go under.

Instead of damning them why not try supporting them, is that really so hard?

[(Unverified) Posted Dec 17th 2009 7:28PM]

Looks it borrows a lot of ideas from Interface Builder to me.

And 280 North with Atlas have something every bit as impressive.

[MxxCon Posted Dec 17th 2009 8:57PM]

Google should take this approach with Chrome's extensions. Provide a nice frontend with good widgets and then hook all the things to their proper place.

[Zoen Posted Dec 17th 2009 9:25PM]

Very good news =)

[Nightwheel Posted Dec 17th 2009 11:35PM]

"We'll split the profits 60 / 40."

I hope you don't mind that if I do make anything. It's going to be a free app.

[tehYama Posted Dec 18th 2009 9:10AM]

While I like that companies are opening up their products for those who want to develop useful software, I do have to say that I'm not a fan of companies focusing on an easy, graphical programming interface. They should really work to create a rock solid API for those with coding backgrounds to interface with the hardware. Of course graphical design when it comes to apps is very important, but if all the back end gets automatically generated, or is misunderstood, there's no guarantee that the program won't be a resource hog.

My two cents, and I do think that more people should get into programming, so maybe this does offer a nice introduction for those designers who want to get their hands dirty with the guts of a machine.

[Pookiewood Posted Dec 18th 2009 8:08PM]

Can't download it. :(