Palm announces Mojo SDK early access for webOS
In his Web 2.0 Expo keynote address on Wednesday evening, Palm's senior vice president of application software and services, Michael Abbott, announced that Palm is expanding its early-access programme for the Palm Mojo software development lit.
The Mojo SDK, previously available to only a select group of partners, will be provided to a broader set of interested developers who apply for access to the programme at the Palm Developer Network website. Access to the programme initially will be limited as the tools and systems continue to be refined and improved, with general availability scheduled for later this year, the company said.
The Mojo SDK is a set of tools developers can use to build native applications for Palm's Pre smartphone and other devices running webOS. The SDK includes sample code, documentation and development tools. An Eclipse-based IDE is included, and developers will also be able to use their choice of tools to build webOS applications.
According to Palm, developers will be able to:
- Build applications with gesture-based navigation, transitions and scrolling
- Use the webOS notification system to alert users without interrupting them
- Leverage the local storage capabilities of HTML5 so data is available even when users are offline
- Use a JSON-based message bus to tap into a wide range of device services, including contacts, calendars and location
- Migrate data from an existing PDB file to a new webOS app