HP webOS Developer Blog

To our valued community of webOS developers:

Throughout my career at companies like Silicon Graphics and Apple, I’ve had the pleasure of working with incredible developer communities. Most recently, during my past three years at Lucasfilm, I worked with some of the most advanced technologists in the world developing groundbreaking special effects for films and games, all of whom had an intensity that produced award winning results. Now, in my short time here at HP, I have already come across some of the most passionate developers I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Add to that our fully committed Developer Relations team, and I just know this is going to be an amazing ride; I’m very happy to be here.

Working with great developers gives us a chance to work with people who can provide new and innovative customer experiences via leading-edge technology. I’m thrilled at the opportunity we have here with webOS—a platform that offers a truly connected experience, real multi-tasking and so much more.

What I’m most excited about, though, is working with this great team here at HP to continue to build on our world-class Developer Relations program, which we feel will provide our developers with everything they need to succeed. That starts with doing a lot of listening and making sure we deliver on our promises to you. We’re also going to build on the momentum from our most recent exciting launch of the Veer, Pre3, and TouchPad, by getting out there and meeting with as many of you as possible.

It’s a pivotal time for us here at HP and we realize our success greatly depends on yours. On behalf of myself and the entire Developer Relations team, you’re our customer, and we’re here to serve you.

I’m here because I’m incredibly excited about the future of webOS – I hope you are too.

All the best,

Richard

As we make the transition to Enyo, developers can still take advantage of Mojo, especially with the upcoming releases of the HP Veer and Pre 3. And while you’re probably very familiar with Mojo, perhaps you aren’t aware of how you can take advantage of the many existing JavaScript libraries that work seamlessly with Mojo.

The Mojo application framework includes Prototype as part of its interface and implementation. Prototype is a stand-alone JavaScript framework, similar to jQuery, YUI, MooTools, and many others. Since Prototype is baked into Mojo, this means that you can use any Prototype-based extension library, with minimal effort and minimal risk of conflicts, in your webOS apps. Let’s walk through a few examples to see how to take advantage of the vast pool of Prototype resources the web has to offer.
Read more ‣

Couldn’t make it to our developer event at Think Beyond? Watch the session with Matthew McNulty, Director of Frameworks and Tools for webOS, who provides a closer look at Enyo, our next generation application framework.

Like what you see? What else would you like to know? Post your questions and comments and we’ll tackle as many of them as we can in future posts.

Hello everyone! Like many of you, I’m just catching my breath from last week’s big announcement. It’s a special time for webOS developers everywhere.

I also want to introduce myself, since you’ll be hearing more from me. I joined our Developer Relations Team last week – what a week to join, eh? I’ll be wearing lots of different hats in this role, but my utmost responsibility is making sure we do a great job communicating all the latest webOS developments with all of you. That entails a lot – from making our blog more helpful, sharing important news more regularly, to fun campaigns that reward the great work of webOS developers everywhere. We’ve got work to do on all these fronts, but I’m ready to help the best development community in the world!

As for a little background on myself, I joined HP Palm from Box.net, a wonderful place where I started out as one its earliest community managers. I went on to lead product launches and other communication efforts, but one of my favorite things was having conversations with our community of customers, bloggers, press and everyone in between.

Now I’m looking forward to having lots of conversations with you. I want to share all the exciting things around developing for webOS. But I want to hear from you too – the good and the bad – so we can be the resource you deserve.

We’ve got so many things to talk about here, so subscribe to the blog if you haven’t already.

We’ll talk soon!

This has been quite a week, with the announcement of an incredible lineup of devices in the Veer, Pre 3 and the TouchPad and a closer look at the next generation of webOS development with our new Enyo framework.

Now, I’m sure many of you are wondering where that leaves apps you’ve developed or want to develop with Mojo. In other words, what should I do now? It’s a choice only you can make, but we believe there are two great opportunities for all webOS developers.

Creating Mojo apps for exciting, all-new HP smartphones

Press and users alike are excited about the all-new Veer and Pre 3. The great news is that these new smartphones come with webOS 2.x, which support apps created in Mojo. These phones provide a huge opportunity for you to update and deliver apps for all-new webOS devices people will want and love for a long time.

To help out, we are extending our free Pre 2 program to all qualified developers. Contact us at devmarketing@palm.com to see how you can receive the latest device to test your apps.

Looking ahead, if you choose to develop new apps in Mojo, you should factor in the effort that will be required to rebuild these apps in Enyo. Rest assured, we’re going to give you the tools and resources to make this transition as smooth as possible.

HP is ready to provide the strongest marketing and distribution ever for webOS devices. We want to work with our development community to provide your apps to more customers worldwide.

Creating Enyo apps for the next generation of webOS devices

While Mojo has been the foundation for apps on current webOS devices and the upcoming Veer and Pre 3, Enyo is the future. We’re working hard to get these tools into your hands quickly, so you can start dreaming about the amazing capabilities that will power webOS 3.0 devices, starting with the HP TouchPad. You’ll be able to leverage this work for Enyo-based smartphone updates as well.

Moving forward, working with Enyo represents an enormous opportunity. HP intends to expand webOS to printers, PCs and beyond – tens of millions of devices every year, beyond smartphones and tablets.

Two great opportunities for all webOS developers

Enyo is the future of webOS development. But Mojo still provides a great opportunity for you to develop and build great apps for the Veer and Pre 3, which we’re putting huge resources behind to get them to as many users as possible.

We hope you see great opportunities developing for the webOS of today and the webOS of tomorrow. Every transition has its challenges but we intend to work hard to give you everything you need throughout this transition.

We appreciate your work, patience and support as we all move forward towards this huge opportunity!

Even with all the exciting news from this week, a lot of questions have been floating around about our plans and how they affect you and our customers. As such, we recognize that we need to do a better job communicating developments in a more timely, detailed and thoughtful way.

For now, we want to address the webOS 2.0 update in particular and what resources we’ll provide to make this transition easier for everyone.

webOS 2.0 Availability

First off, the decision not to release webOS 2.0 for the Pre and Pixi was incredibly tough, knowing that we couldn’t deliver the latest and greatest to people that supported webOS from the very beginning. But, it was a decision that had to be made and we hope our plans for the next generation of webOS will provide the best platform for everyone moving forward. Here are some additional thoughts for your reference.

Supporting the transition to webOS 2.0 and beyond

With the exciting announcement of HP’s all-new Veer, Pre 3 and game-changing TouchPad, we want to give you the resources you need to develop apps for webOS 2.0 and beyond:

• Extending our free Pre 2 program for qualified developers: Contact us at devmarketing@palm.com – we want to help you test your app on the latest devices.
• Redoubling our resources to support developers: We are actively expanding resources to help you develop for webOS, from how we handle email support via pdc@palm.com to a dedicated team that’s better equipped to help you every step of the way.
• New incentives and promotions: We’ll share more details about how we intend to reward your efforts and support of webOS.

It’s a start. We want to provide the resources you need and deserve every step of the way, whatever it takes. There’s a lot of buzz around the new webOS devices and the future of the platform, which offer a great opportunity for your apps now and in the future. HP is going to provide the strongest support and promotion webOS has ever had – and it all starts with you. Stay tuned!

What an amazing week. After a sneak peek into the future of webOS and an incredible lineup of new devices to get your apps on, we think you’ll agree that it’s an exciting time to be a webOS developer.

Now that you’ve seen the future, we want you to get your hands on it. We’ll soon be offering developers an exclusive preview of Enyo with our SDK Early Access Program. As a member, you get early access to upcoming SDK releases, including a look at the awesome things you’ll be able to do with Enyo. What’s not to like? Best of all, anyone can join.

How developers can join

Applying to the SDK Early Access Program couldn’t be easier. Just send an email to pdc@palm.com. Once you accept the terms of the program, which of course includes a Confidentiality Agreement, you’ll be all set.

Already a member?

Talk about instant gratification. If you’re already in the SDK Early Access Program, head on over to the Early Access private forum and download the Enyo Preview. And get ready to rock and roll.

The great news is that we’re just getting started. We’re working on so many cool things, so expect to hear from us even more in the coming weeks.

So, go for it! Join our early access program, get Enyo and let us know what you think. We look forward to hearing from all of you.