Palm Responds to NaNPlayer / App Catalog Issue
We have already posted this as an update to the original story about the rejection of "inability to accept" NaNPlayer for the official App Catalog, but the more we think about it, the more we think it deserves a full post. Here's Palm's response to the entire issue, by way of Chuq Von Rospach, the Developer Community Manager at Palm.
He posted in our forums. We'll put his response, and our response to his response, and your response to our response to his response (in the form of your comments) ....after the break!
We have gotten a lot of feedback about NaNPlayer which is great. We love that people are excited about the application, and that developers are able to be creative on the webOS platform.
We reached out to JC (the developer) and discussed our reasons for not accepting the application at this time, but we also wanted to be open with you about this.
NaNPlayer is using APIs that are currently private because they will change significantly in a future release. Although we aren't able to support the functionality that JC needs right now, we are listening to the community to help prioritize which APIs and features we put into webOS.
Chuq Von Rospach
Palm Developer Community ManageWhile we can’t accept NaNPlayer into the App Catalog right now, we are not rejecting it, and we are happy for it to continue life as a homebrew application until we get to the point where we can release public, supportable APIs for the functionality that it requires.
Thanks for your passion, and we can't wait to enable even more fantastic creative applications via an expanded set of public APIs.
The main reason that NaNPlayer couldn't get it is that it's using an undocumented API to get access to the music on the Pre. Let's review the things that Palm is doing right (as opposed to Apple, of course):
- Quickly responding to what could have become a growing controversy
- Plainly and transparently explaining why the app couldn't be accepted
- Noting that when Palm has finished the APIs, they'll take another look
- Noting that they're happy to have it live on as a homebrew application
For those watching from home, that last is a clear indication that Palm doesn't seem to have any bones with sideloading applications - i.e. they don't seem to be likely to lock down the Pre soon.
Most importantly, though, is the thing that comes before all those points - Palm has a Developer Community Manager whose sole job it is to help out the developer community and engage just these sorts of issues when they arise. Palm's doing that from the get-go, instead of having the Senior VP of Marketing email developers and bloggers only after their blog posts on the rejection fiascos have reached critical levels.
Now, before we get too misty-eyed, we should note that it's still frustrating that Palm doesn't have a finalized API for something this basic and it's a bummer that they can't be flexible with Blubble, the developer, in the meantime. They've allowed other apps in that used undocumented APIs, Blubble notes, but the core issue is that the music APIs are still very much in flux and likely to change.
In any case, we're feeling pretty good about the future openness and transparency of the App Catalog. Things could be better, sure, but boy oh boy they could be worse.
