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Usually when we hear the phrase “contract-free developer phone” the words “unlocked” and “GSM” follow shortly thereafter, but apparently Palm didn’t get the memo — it just announced discounted hardware prices for its devices, but they’re carrier-locked to Verizon and Sprint. Yeah, that’s a big sad face out of us — it’s not like Verizon’s going to give you a cheaper plan if you show up with a contract-free device. In fact, you might be better off picking up a $79 Pre on a Sprint contract from Amazon and just canceling after a year or so — the ETF will have been prorated to $120 by then, putting you way ahead of Palm’s $439 price tag. So much for that dream — at least we still have our fantasy of driving to Mexico for an illicit Telcel Pre smuggling run.

Palm offering discounted contract-free phones to developers — too bad they’re carrier locked originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 12 Mar 2010 20:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm just showed us the Unreal Engine 3 running on webOS, which apparently took a couple weeks to port over to the platform using that fancy new PDK. It runs at a pretty smooth clip, with just a tiny bit of artifacting in our enemy’s death animation. As an added bit of wow factor, Palm has it currently setup to demonstrate the game at 1 fps when in card view. Like most touchscreen shooters, this doesn’t really solve the problem of simulating dual analog sticks, but it’s still a fun and good looking engine for a mobile device. We’re still unaware of any games that have been built for the mobile engine, which has now been shown for iPhone, Tegra 2, and will be headed to the iPad as well, but we have to assume we’ll be seeing some before too long. Check out the webOS video after the break.

Continue reading Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we’ve got video!

Unreal Engine 3 up and running on webOS, and we’ve got video! originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Mar 2010 18:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We just sat down with Palm here at GDC and fished out a few more details on the PDK beta front. Firstly, and most interestingly, Palm has confirmed that the PDK now works on all of its handsets (instead of just the Pre and Pre Plus), which means Pixi buyers can stop hating themselves pretty soon. Apparently the level of performance degradation should be comparable iPhone 3G vs. 3GS, which doesn’t sound too horrible. This is functionality that wasn’t available even to Palm’s early PDK partners like EA and Gameloft, so we should be seeing versions of existing games make the jump to the Pixi when the time for PDK beta-developed apps to hit the Palm App Catalog. When will that time come, you ask? The “middle of the year,” or “a few months,” whichever sounds more promising to you. Palm’s not saying whether this new era for the App Catalog (anyone being able to release PDK apps, and those apps working on the Pre and the Pixi) will accompany a full-on webOS update, but it seems logical to us.

On a more technical front, we’re told the PDK supports the Linux standard SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer) to ease in porting and development (Unreal for Linux runs using SDL, for instance), and that developers could even build apps like an audio processor that rely on PDK components but don’t show up in the UI at all, or OpenGL-empowered things that aren’t necessarily games or in 3D. Also, existing developers have only been able to do “full screen” games that rely on PDK components alone, but the PDK beta lets you mix and match webOS UI with PDK elements. Currently there aren’t many PDK games that use the extra Palm hardware like the QWERTY keyboard and the gesture area, but we’re told that’s all exposed to the developer, along with any other element of webOS that Mojo SDK users have access to. One notable plugin hangup is the fact that Flash only works in the browser, and can’t be embedded into a regular webOS app, PDK or no — though we have to assume this is something that’s in the works.

Palm’s webOS PDK beta adds Pixi native development, PDK’d apps will hit the Catalog mid year originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 19:12:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Palm has announced the beta release of its Plug-in Developer Kit — or PDK — a new component in the webOS SDK that will make for dramatically better gaming on the Palm Pre, Palm Pixi and all future webOS devices.

Originally announced back in January at the CES show, the release’s venue — the ongoing Game Developers Conference in San Francisco — is as much an indication of Palm’s gaming ambitions for its platform as the release itself.

The PDK now lets developers use C and C++ and the OpenGL ES graphics API for 3D graphics and means, in Palm’s words, that developers who have built games for other platforms can now bring their titles to the webOS platform.

Put even more simply, it’s a way of luring developers to the webOS platform offering an easy way to convert iPhone games, for example, to work on Palm handsets, therefore bolstering the webOS’s available apps with popular titles from other platforms.

Thanks to early access to the PDK, some developers (EA Mobile, Gameloft, Glu Mobile and Laminar Research) are already offering 3D titles via the Palm App Catalog, however new games created with the public beta PDK won’t actually work on Palm phones until a webOS update is pushed out some time “during the middle of the year”.

Those on the dev side of the fence can head over to the Developer Portal and download the Palm webOS PDK now.

Tags: games, palm, webOS

Continue reading Palm unleashes webOS PDK beta on the public

Palm unleashes webOS PDK beta on the public originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 09 Mar 2010 11:19:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Foursquare is battling for your SXSW checkins with a musical scavenger hunt. Rival Gowalla is going to go after them with free gadgets — specifically free Palm Pre Plus and Palm Pixi Plus devices as part of a promotion the location-based social networking service is unveiling in conjunction with their just-launched app for webOS.

The app should hit the Palm App Catalog on Tuesday, and like the company’s applications for other platforms (including its recently launched Android app) it detects your location to show you nearby venues, lets you know where your friends are located, and has a gaming element called “stamps” that can be accrued as you check in to various places.

The SXSW connection is part of a push by Gowalla into virtual goods. Users will be able to discover virtual Palm Pre and Pixi devices as they use the application (essentially, the more you use it, the better your chances –- it’s random), and then be able to redeem those at specific parties at the festival to get the actual device. Another partner –- Lomography –- has inserted virtual cameras into Gowalla, that once found can also be redeemed for free gear.

This is one way Gowalla hopes to differentiate itself from the competition, and, truth be told, it’s not a bad one. No one wants to leave an event like SXSW empty-handed, and by teaming up with brands to offer free gadgets to users at an event that will be loaded with tech enthusiasts could encourage some splitting (or at least doubling up) of the checkins across services.

Now that Gowalla’s starting to catch up in terms of platform support, much of the battle might come down to marketing — where Foursquare has also recently invested heavily by forming partnerships with a host of media companies.

In any event, here’s a look at some of the features of the webOS app:

Which service will you be using to check in at SXSW? Let us know in the comments!

Reviews: Foursquare, Gowalla

Tags: gowalla, palm, webOS