The Official Palm, Inc. Blog

At the annual Game Developers Conference this week, Palm and Epic Games are demonstrating Unreal Engine 3 on Palm webOS. Unreal Engine 3 powers Epic's popular Unreal Tournament 3 and Gears of War along with many other titles from leading game developers. Licensees of Unreal Engine 3 will soon be able to build games for Palm webOS. 

Earlier this week, Palm announced the public availability of the beta release of the Plug-in Development Kit [PDK] for developers seeking to expand their options for creating apps for Palm webOS phones. Together, the PDK and the Unreal Engine 3 will make it even easier for developers to bring visually rich games to Palm webOS phones. 

Developers can download Unreal Engine 3 for free here. More information about Palm's PDK can be found here.

Jon Zilber

Ever wonder what motivates a developer to write a Palm webOS app?

 

Sometimes it’s for the sheer enjoyment of the challenge, or developers are simply creating something they’d like to use themselves. For example, Andrew Munsell -- at 15 years old, one of the youngest webOS developers -- often has a personal need for the apps he creates, such as Stickyman.

 

Sometimes it’s just the right thing to do. After the earthquake in Haiti, Mediafly and Obtiva were moved to quickly create a Palm webOS app -- Hope for Haiti Now -- in about day. The app let users watch the Hope for Haiti Now LIVE! Telethon on their Palm Pre or Palm Pixi, providing links for making donations to help the international relief efforts.

 

Still, many developers are writing apps for their bread and butter. It is a business, after all, and there’s a lot of competition to write a best-selling app. To spur that race, the Palm “Hot Apps” program will award a total of $1 million to the developers of the most successful applications distributed between February 1 through May 31, 2010.

 

Whatever the motivation for writing apps, Palm webOS provides ample opportunities for developers to meet their goals… and deliver some great apps for Palm webOS users.

 

Paul Araquistain, Palm PR

 

Ever wonder what motivates a developer to write a Palm webOS app? Sometimes it’s for the sheer enjoyment of the challenge, or developers are simply creating something they’d like to use themselves. For example, Andrew Munsell -- at 15 years... Palm, Inc.

Ever wonder what motivates a developer to write a Palm webOS app? Sometimes it’s for the sheer enjoyment of the challenge, or developers are simply creating something they’d like to use themselves. For example, Andrew Munsell -- at 15 years... Palm, Inc.

Ever wonder what motivates a developer to write a Palm webOS app? Sometimes it’s for the sheer enjoyment of the challenge, or developers are simply creating something they’d like to use themselves. For example, Andrew Munsell -- at 15 years... Palm, Inc.

A completely revamped version of the free Facebook for Palm app for all Palm webOS phones is now available in the Palm App Catalog. Download (or update) the app and you'll find enhancements to help you: Stay current: You can... Palm, Inc.

A completely revamped version of the free Facebook for Palm app for all Palm webOS phones is now available in the Palm App Catalog. Download (or update) the app and you'll find enhancements to help you: Stay current: You can... Palm, Inc.

A completely revamped version of the free Facebook for Palm app for all Palm webOS phones is now available in the Palm App Catalog. Download (or update) the app and you'll find enhancements to help you: Stay current: You can... Palm, Inc.

A completely revamped version of the free Facebook for Palm app for all Palm webOS phones is now available in the Palm App Catalog. Download (or update) the app and you'll find enhancements to help you:

• Stay current: You can keep up to date with your Facebook inbox, latest Facebook events, friends' birthdays, and your news feed. You can now view your friends' Walls, Information, and Photos, and keep tabs on your own Wall.

• Stay in touch: Reply to messages in your Facebook inbox or compose new messages, Like and Comment on items in your News Feed, and find friends (old and new) with new Search functionality.

• Share photos: You can show off your photo albums to friends, as well as view, like, and comment on photos and albums. You can also quickly upload photos directly from the Facebook application.

If you'd like to learn a little of the behind-the-scenes story of how the updated app was created, check this post on the Palm Developer Center Blog. And if you've got any thoughts on what you'd like to see in the next update, you can weigh in on the Facebook for Palm page on Facebook.

Jon Zilber

The latest update to Palm webOS is now arriving on your phone via an over-the-air update. The update is now available for customers on the Sprint network in the US and on the O2 UK, O2 DE, O2 Ireland, and Movistar networks in Europe. [February 27: The update was released today for customers using the Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus on Verizon Wireless.] The update is expected to be available for Palm webOS phones on other networks soon. Highlights of the latest update include:

• The ability to capture, edit, and share video: Not only can you easily shoot video footage from your Palm webOS phone, but you can also make quick edits and upload your footage to YouTube or Facebook (or send them via email or MMS) with just a couple of taps. See the video capabilities in action in the video below.
  
  



• Get more done faster: The Calendar, Phone, Messaging, and Email apps have all been enhanced with new features to simplify common tasks (many based on feedback from our customers). For example, in the Calendar app, you can now dial a number that appears in the subject of an appointment. In the Email app, you can now sort by date, sender, and subject. In the Phone app, the Call log offers more options to easily connect to a contact (such as via SMS). And there are some new shortcuts for zipping from one app to another (for example, moving from a chat view to a phone call with that person). You¹ll also see improved performance in these apps.


• Enhanced notifications: The LED in the gesture area now lights up and pulses if you have a notification (even when the screen is off). You can also customize notification sounds in Messaging, Email (on an account-by-account basis), and Calendar. And there are new notification sounds in the ringtones library to give your more customization options for your alert.

See more details of the Palm webOS 1.4 update in action here. Your phone will automatically update within a few days once Palm webOS 1.4 is available on your carrier. You can also trigger the update using the Updates app. We always welcome your feedback on what you’d like to see in the next Palm webOS update -- share your thoughts here.

 

Jon Zilber

Update: Palm webOS 1.4 is now available for customers on Verizon Wireless.

The latest update to Palm webOS is now arriving on your phone via an over-the-air update. The update is now available for customers on the Sprint network in the US and on the O2 UK, O2 DE, O2 Ireland, and... Palm, Inc.

The latest update to Palm webOS is now arriving on your phone via an over-the-air update. The update is now available for customers on the Sprint network in the US and on the O2 UK, O2 DE, O2 Ireland, and... Palm, Inc.

Andrew Munsell, the 15-year-old founder of WizardApps, has been getting quite a bit of attention lately, including coverage from a local TV news station in his home town of Seattle. Why? Because this whiz kid is earning money for college by developing apps for his favorite mobile platform: Palm webOS.

 

“I was immediately hooked. After seeing the Pre's multitasking capabilities and learning that webOS apps were going to be written in HTML and Javascript, I was ecstatic … web development is my thing … Now, I'm completely addicted to the Pre.”

 

Andrew currently has seven webOS apps available in the Palm App Catalog, including Weatherman, Stickyman and QuickClip. When asked if he’s working on any other webOS apps, Andrew says “I've got a few cool ones brewing up my sleeve right now… It's a great operating system.”

 

Andrew’s Palm webOS apps are netting him a few thousand dollars every month toward college. Sure beats the paper route I had as a teen. Good thing too, because with his sights set on medical school, every penny (or grand) helps.

 

Institutions of higher education take note: App development may be the financial aid of the future.

 

Paul Araquistain, Palm PR

Andrew Munsell, the 15-year-old founder of WizardApps, has been getting quite a bit of attention lately, including coverage from a local TV news station in his home town of Seattle. Why? Because this whiz kid is earning money for college... Palm, Inc.

Of course you can check out the user reviews of apps in the Palm App Catalog, but we thought you might like to hear what apps some of the folks inside Palm are using these days. So here are some favorite apps from people who live and breathe Palm webOS every day:

 

Mark A.: “Tweed is probably No. 1 because it lets me keep up on all my tweeps and allows me to tweet pics etc. I also like the Concert Finder app because I can find all the concerts going on in my area months in advance.”

 

Lally N.: “My favorite Palm webOS app is Let’s Golf because at any time in the day I can take a break and play a few holes… and pretend I can actually break 90."

 

 

Gail K.: “The People application. It’s a total guilty pleasure. I love looking at it when I’ve got a little time to kill.” 

 

Eric P.: “With Party Sign, I can communicate with people across the room without having to talk. It scrolls whatever message you type across your screen. I also like Tune Your Guitar Pro, as I’m a drummer and always like to challenge my guitar player’s ears!!”

 

 

Gerard B.: “I love the homebrew app YouView because it works great as a visual voicemail solution. I never have to go through five prompts again just to listen to my voicemail, and deleting voicemail messages is only one finger swipe away.”

 

That’s a sample of the view from the inside. If you have any favorite apps you’d like to suggest, leave a comment. Word of mouth (or blog) is often the best recommendation…

 

Paul Araquistain, Palm PR

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could set up your phone to make dialing additional numbers easier? With Palm webOS, it’s as simple as knowing your T’s and P’s.

 

When you are calling an automated “menu” system and know the numbers you want to dial, you can insert a two-second pause in the dialing sequence by inserting a T where you want the pause to appear. Need a longer pause? Enter another T!

 

Calling business contacts that have an extension that can be dialed after calling the company’s main number is just as simple. Enter a P before the extension number.

 

Tap the onscreen dial icon to begin the call. Now you will see a button in the phone application to tap when you’re dialed in to the company!

 

Looking for more ways to make or receive calls? Check here for more tips.

 

Calvin P., Customer Support

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could set up your phone to make dialing additional numbers easier? With Palm webOS, it’s as simple as knowing your T’s and P’s. When you are calling an automated “menu” system and know the... Palm, Inc.

Of course you can check out the user reviews of apps in the Palm App Catalog, but we thought you might like to hear what apps some of the folks inside Palm are using these days. So here are some... Palm, Inc.

Of course you can check out the user reviews of apps in the Palm App Store, but we thought you might like to hear what apps some of the folks inside Palm are using these days. So here are some... Palm, Inc.