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Palm fans, get your party hats on. Today the company is announcing the beta release of its SDK for webOS 2.0, which means we’re getting dangerously close to a proper 2.0 release for devices. And who knows… maybe the phone-maker will decide to throw a new device our way to go along with the OS. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Starting tomorrow, a select (though rather wide, says Palm) group of developers will be able to start toying around with the latest and greatest SDK for the company’s mobile operating system, and it looks like the new software brings some tasty morsels to the table that you’re definitely going to want to chow down on. We got the scoop directly from Palm on just exactly what kind of changes you’ll be seeing in the first version of 2.0, and we’ve rounded them up in a neatly digestible form below, so read on after the break and get the full story.

Continue reading Palm puts webOS 2.0 SDK into limited release starting today

Palm puts webOS 2.0 SDK into limited release starting today originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 31 Aug 2010 14:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Leave it to Apple to make the process of building software to work with new third party iPhone hardware sound like some Kafkaesque nightmare. Here’s the basic gist of it: Apple, just like always, has to approve any third party hardware that plugs into one of its iOS devices over the 30-pin dock connector. What’s new is that before only the first party manufacturer could build software that works with that hardware, but now Apple is allowing that manufacturer to act as a gatekeeper for third party apps that would interoperate with its hardware. That means exciting times for app developers that are raring to mix with the likes of Line 6’s MIDI Mobilizer (pictured) and AKAI’s SynthStation 25, but it’s also a far cry from the land of computers where anybody can build a plug-and-play USB MIDI device, and anybody can build software that speaks to it. It also means juggling proprietary SDKs, NDAs, and other agreements, which could become very difficult for developers if or when the hardware availability balloons. Hopefully we can get something more elegant before it comes to that. Hit up the source link for an in-depth discussion of this issue.

The iPhone gets third party apps for third party hardware, but the proprietary SDKs make the future sad originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 20 Aug 2010 16:40:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s not the biggest of releases, but progress is progress at this point. Since launching in late April, Microsoft has been rather mum on the future of its latest Windows Home Server build. This week, however, the second major beta release has been let loose into the wilds, with Vail’s most recent build now available to download there in the source link. The Big M doesn’t go into great detail on what all has been added and / or changed, only saying that this new version has “plenty of enhancements and improvements over the original.” The so-called “Preview” also adds support for Mac OS X backups, though users should know that storage check and repair (among other things, most likely) aren’t exactly working seamlessly. But hey, that’s what you get for living on the beta, right?

Windows Home Server ‘Vail’ sees new beta release, adds OS X support originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 11:20:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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When we met with Finnish startup Aava Mobile today, they pulled out the same old prototype phone… then, to our great surprise, dropped a brand-new device right alongside to show us how their Moorestown-based ambitions have grown. This is the Virta 2 reference design, which will ship to developers soon, with the same basic hardware inside but a few important tweaks. First of all, you’ll note that’s MeeGo on this screen, not the droid we were looking for, but that’s because the development kit can switch between operating systems by merely swapping out the microSD card.

Whereas the original prototype had a thin, flimsy shell, the Virta 2’s gone downright rugged, ditching the iPhone chrome for a more durable gunmetal frame, and there’s a full compliment of sensors (compass, accelerometer, ambient light and proximity) alongside quad-band radios, WiFi, Bluetooth and a pair of cameras for your video chat testing needs. At €1900 (roughly $2393) per unit, the dev handset isn’t exactly cheap, but where else are you going to get an Atom Z600 to play around with? Devices ship late August or early September, and Aava expects the platform (but not this exact handset) to see commercial availability next year. Find preorders at our source link, if you’ve got the bankroll.

Aava Mobile reveals Virta 2 smartphone development kit, we go hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 21:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Early versions of the tools Windows Phone 7 developers will use to craft their wares have been floating around since Microsoft’s MIX event in March, but it looks like things have finally gotten robust and feature-complete enough this week to bless the kit with a beta label. In fact, Microsoft is coming out and saying that this release “represents the near final version,” which we take to mean you can develop with some confidence that your world won’t be turned upside down when the time comes to prep your apps for shipping devices and firmwares. The actual API has been tweaked and Expression Blend is now fully integrated with the tools, though there are apparently still a few controls that aren’t ready for primetime and will be added over the coming weeks. Oh, and if no emulator is enough to satisfy your intense cravings, you might be excited to learn that more developer devices are slated to ship next week — so keep an eye on your mailbox and your porch if you signed up to get one.

Microsoft’s Windows Phone Developer Tools package goes to beta originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:57:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Although we’ve been running iPhone OS 4 — now known as iOS 4 — since it was first announced in April, we actually haven’t been able to try out any of the fancy new multitasking features, since no third party apps have been released with support yet. That’s all about to change: as of today, Apple is accepting iOS 4 apps, which means we should see quite a few apps that take advantage of multitasking on the iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4, as well as make use of the 1500 other new APIs in the system when it launches on June 21.

That’s definitely good news, but we’ve got a feeling Apple’s unique take on iPhone multitasking will take a few people by surprise, as only certain tasks are allowed in the background — and apps that need to run persistently, like IRC and IM clients, still won’t really work at all. In fact, there’s already some rumblings by devs that they need additional backgrounding tools in order to provide features that users are asking for; Instapaper’s Marco Ament has proposed a network polling API that would allow his app to update content in the background, for example. We’ll see how quickly Apple responds to these requests, but for right now we’re just happy we’ll finally be able to switch away from a Skype call or GPS app while using our iPhones.

[Thanks, Oliver]

Apple now accepting iOS 4 apps, multitasking ahoy originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 11 Jun 2010 15:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Sure, Intel might not be planning for Moorestown-based smartphones to hit the market for at least another six months, and the LG GW990 might have died a quiet death, but that’s not stopping Aava from getting right in the game with its Virta Android, an Atom Z600-based reference smartphone designed for developer testing. Slated to ship in Q3, the Virta features a Moorestown processor, a 3.8-inch 864 x 480 capacitive touchscreen, quad-band EDGE radios with AT&T 3G support, WiFi, Bluetooth, a five megapixel video camera, and a microSD slot. We’re assuming the shipping version will look a lot like the prototype Aava device we’ve been seeing for a while now, but Aava has some fancier renders up on its site, so we’ll see what happens and how much this costs when this thing arrives.

Continue reading Aava Virta Android reference platform will be the first shipping Moorestown smartphone

Aava Virta Android reference platform will be the first shipping Moorestown smartphone originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 18:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve already watched pre-release versions of MeeGo fly around on a number of netbooks, but if you’re still wondering if it’s worth your while to install v1.0 on your own machine, you owe it to yourself to have a look at the video posted after the break. The fine folks over at Liliputing have installed the fresh-out-of-the-lab operating system onto their MSI netbook in order to showcase some of the features, and frankly, we’re duly impressed by what we’re seeing. It’s clearly light on its feet, with an Expose-like shifting of screens happening at speeds which we previously only dreamed of seeing on an Atom-based rig. We can’t say the rest of the world is really ready to ditch Windows 7 for something as niche as this, but judging by this vid, you should probably give it a whirl. What’s to lose, right?

P.S. – Phoronix was able to run the new OS through the benchmark gauntlet, and it certainly showed up Ubuntu.

[Thanks, Rafael]

Continue reading MeeGo 1.0 demoed on MSI netbook, looks shockingly stupendous (video)

MeeGo 1.0 demoed on MSI netbook, looks shockingly stupendous (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 27 May 2010 16:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You’ve seen it teased, and now it’s time to shelve whatever you had planned for this evening (or morning, depending on your current coordinates) and slap the first bona fide 1.x MeeGo release onto whatever device you’ve got handy. As of right now, MeeGo v1.0 for Netbooks and v1.0 for Nokia N900 are available for download, with the former supporting Atom-based machines and the latter supporting… well, we’ll let you take a stab there. The API that’s being released includes Qt 4.6, and while the current SDK is tailored for netbooks, the next version — slated to hit devs in June — will support “touch-based devices, such as handsets and tablets.” We’re also told that v1.1 will be outed in October, with the development tree already being open. We’re certainly digging the layout shown here at a glance, but why not give that source link a visit and find out how it suits you in real life? We heard Snooki totally digs it, too.

[Thanks, Ernst]

MeeGo 1.0 for netbooks and N900 now available to download originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 26 May 2010 18:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Giving devs access to freshly-announced versions of mobile operating systems on the very same day that they’re announced is pretty much the way things work nowadays — the first version of Windows Phone 7 understandably excepted — so we’re pleased to see that Google’s kit for Android 2.2 Froyo is now up and running. You start out by downloading a modest 18-odd megabyte package that just contains tools with no target platforms, then you open a separate app to pull and install only the platforms you want (you can go all the way back to version 1.5, if you’re so inclined). So kick off that download now while you grab lunch — we hear the lobster bisque they’re serving in the cafeteria today is pretty good.

[Thanks, Justin B.]

Android 2.2 SDK goes live, developers likely unable to crash Google’s download server originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 20 May 2010 13:12:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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