PDK: No API for mic or camera, Pixi support preliminary 57
Developing for webOS has its pros and cons. On the one hand, you have the easiest mobile platform for web developers to target. On the other hand, the application-programming interfaces (APIs) for natively accessing important features aren't all fully baked yet. To wit: the microphone and camera.
Now that Palm's Plugin Developer Kit (PDK) is out in public beta, there is renewed hope for getting these API's and therefore a new breed of applications. Ben Combee (@unwiredben) of Palm's Developer Relations team is posting a series of FAQ's on his livejournal page and his has shared that the latest PDK will not include those API's for the mic or camera.
We still hold out hope that access will come soon and apps like Shazam or true barcode scanners will become possible - but it looks like we'll be waiting a bit longer.
You'll also find within the FAQ a tidbit on Pixi support for the PDK. It's there, but in a VERY limited way. Ben says you can try testing apps out for Pixi but we should keep in mind 3D gaming isn't intended for the initial build.
In general, we have a lot of hope for the PDK. The ability to mix and match traditional webOS formatting elements with native code could be a Big Deal for faster and more advanced apps.
Thanks to Gene for the tip! via PalmNewsDaily
Update: Ben Combee rightly posts an clarification that we neglected to mention with regard to camera access:
Added small clarification to FAQ on PDK camera support -- you can capture images from Mojo and then load them into a native PDK component.
57 Comments
I'm dying for a call recorder!! Lets get a move on Palm..
Yes, me too. I've been waiting since the beginning to be able to record telephone conversations. It's the biggest thing I miss from my old Treo.
Ditto.
A call recorder is one example of something that Android doesn't have.
If webOS *had* it... that'd be a very legit differentiator, and something to brag to the developers about....
but.... yea....
NOTE: There are call recorder apps written for Android, but NONE of them work, afaik.
I would definetely mess around witht a barcoder :D
(In Sears or Walmart) "barcodes scan" heeey! it says here it's 3.49 and you have 8.99! U thieves
Seriously, that would be so fun.
Don't get me wrong here, I love my Pre and webOS, but why does Palm continue to shoot itself in the foot?
I'm with ya. I want Palm to survive, and do well, but at this rate, I'll have an HTC EVO by fall.
I echo your sentiments. Is there a good reason we can't have things like the barcode scanners and Shazam and voice memo recording? I feel like my smartphone isn't smart enough some days. We're approaching 10 months since the release of the Pre...these should have been available months ago.
Releasing an entirely new way of programming on a device, while not including every feature the community wants, is not shooting themselves in the foot.
Sony removing Other OS support on the PS3 is a good example of a company taking a perfectly good foot and letting loose with a shotgun. (Considering the # of users of Other OS, it may just have been letting loose with a paintball gun on their big toe though).
Livejournal? People still use that?
Palm need to get it together besides the articles they need to stop releasing these half ass apps n send sumthin that works. Bring me flash or bring me HTC EVO 4G.
So....you are saying that EVO will have flash?
I believe EVO will have Flash right out of the box. I copied this from the press release by HTC
"The custom Web browser is optimized for HTC EVO 4G
You think SDK/PDK engineers are in charge of carrier distribution?
The PDK is generally the door for iPhone app ports. When the PDK is released, Slingbox should be able to port to webOS in a matter of days/weeks, judging by Gameloft's success.
I dont think that at all. I do think if my shitty HTC MOGUL can run slingbox, and if palm was going to tantalize me with thoughts that slingbox will run on the PRE (how many times have we heard this, at launch and the 1.4 update, possibly more?) then it shouldnt take a cotton picking year to get this to me. Its one of the most advanced phones on the market and it cant do something my phone I got in 2005 can? That is just m effing bs!
jeeze, this is taking far too long. voice memos, call recorder, shazam!, bar code scanner, these basic features / apps are selling the competition.
I love this phone and webOS too, and have invested in tons of paid apps, but in June it will have been a year, life is too short to wait for these things on webOS, when there are good, and great options out there, or coming soon
Come on, Palm, our 10 year relationship is going to come to an end soon if webOS can't "get it gear" and get these features working.
My fear is Palm was counting on having 3-5 million webOS sold by now, (and the revenue that would have come from it), and without that, they just don't have the money to spend on a new device. they've got over a million old Pre's in inventory, so I don't see a new device this year, if ever.
I just hope webOS gets better, for now but, the thought of the EVO in June, or the new iPhone 4 on Sprint and Verizon in the Fall? ...well, it THAT happens, I don't think Palm could survive a hit like that. Esp. if the new iPhone has HALF the specs it's rumored to have, anyway.
(smacks own forehead)
Agree with you completely.
You blew it Palm. Developers have been eagerly awaiting the PDK to do what you couldn't. Now it's clearer than ever that the death spiral will continue...
You can actually make voice recordings in the Palm OS Classic app. Not sure why this app has it and others don't.
I agree that Palm has got to get mic and camera APIs out the door pronto, but my guess is they just don't have the staff.
Actually, I'm looking for a call recorder, like CalRec on Palm OS.
The ex wife tends to forget what she says sometime.. :-)
Voice (memo) recorder would be nice. I'd prefer not to have to deal with a Palm OS emulator to get it either.
Waaaah! I want a voice recorder!
I'm beginning to agree with you people being harsh on the pre more and more. I love this thing and last night I was trying to floss the pre to some classmates and then they said can your phone listen to music and tell you what it is and can your phone do this. Then he opened his t-pain app said a few lyrics into it and before you knew it he was all auto tuned up. I had more fun with that app alone then I've had with the pre in a few weeks. All I could do is just wish I had access to the mic. Way to make me look stupid in front of my whole GBS 221 class palm.
That was the dumbest comment I have ever seen on here.
this is another executive level mistake for Palm that has and will result in Android, Iphone, and the soon? to be released HTC Evo kicking WebOS ass up and down the smart phone world. Palm needs sales of its phones and paid apps to increase dramatically in order to capture more market share let alone survive.
This makes no sense from Palm. I wonder whether they want to succeed or not
I agree. I should have never invested in a underdeveloped smartphone.
Palm got until June or is it July 22nd were the new iphone will be announced. If nothing happens than I give up on the waiting
Either sooner or later than that-- I think (or hope at least) that they learned their lesson when they released the Pre so close to the iPhone last year. Doing so again would just be a setup for failure (not that they're not used to that).
Although many start to doubt Palm because they're not happy about one thing or another, I'm still backing them with bold confidence. If mic/camera aren't supported now, they will be in the NEAR future. I think Palm is doing us all justice by slowing technology down and though most want things NOW NOW NOW, whos to say one will ever be satisfied? I remember when video game consoles had a lifespan of 10 years - today it's pretty much cut in half. In the mobile world things are on speed w/ the average person grabbing a new device with every year.
Palm is letting us enjoy webOS and our phones whether it be Pre or Pixi, Pre+ or Pixi+. Though many have gripes about hardware and/or software bugs...the overall experience is generally great.
This is all IMHO =)
ps: "...the world's first webOS 4G smartphone!"
;)
Are you serious? Slow technology down? I hope you dont want to apply that to medical technology as well.
How is being behind the curve letting us enjoy webOS? I cant go on half of the websites because they need flash. I cant watch tv on my phone because nothing on the phone is compatible with slingplayer. How is that enjoyable? Oh wait, let me play with some apps. First one up is Asphalt. Everythings going great now... OH WAIT THE GAME LAGS AND CRASHES. Great, this is fun. The only thing that is better about the Pre than the iPhone, and dont get me wrong, I EFFING HATE APPLE AND ALL THINGS APPLE AND MACS AND iPADS, is the multitasking. THATS IT. Literally thats it (and the keyboard, I do like a physical keyboard). Maybe its just my pre but the OS does not run as smooth as the iPhone OS. I see it every day. My gf has an iPhone and I have the pre and her phone out performs mine every day. And I have to restart mine constantly and she NEVER does.
Stop being OK with mediocrity and letting Palm off the hook with how slow and unimpressive they are being!
+1
Well said..
Not to mention VoIP, voice recording, OBEX etc. This seems to be "standard" on smart phones.
Palm loves to take their sweet a$$ time during such crucial moments. They must think they have all of 2010 to mature the pre. Wake up call PALM!!!! We are starting to lose interest in the pre. BEELEE DAT!!!
http://blog.laptopmag.com/march-smart-phone-madness-game-13-palm-pre-plu...
it has started again... support our beloved palm and webOS!!
they should take all those unsold pres, open them up, use what they can (the screens for example) from them and transform them into pre +, or new phones. that way they save some money instead of making new phones from scratch.
Everybody *relaaax*. Just because there isn't "official mic support" in the SDK doesn't mean there won't be apps made when the PDK comes out. The fact that anybody can type one line in the terminal on a stock Pre and record their voice pretty much says this isn't impossible.
- plugin gets written in C to interface with gstreamer
- mojo app gets written to interface with plugin
- done
While currently this would technically work, it will not be permitted by Palm. Also this type of access to gstreamer may be revoked in the future. Read this thread for more details: https://developer.palm.com/distribution/viewtopic.php?f=70&t=6050
So we have to wait until the mic API is officially released by Palm.
And I hope that when the mic API is officially released by Palm, it'll actually be able to function properly for call recording.
Android might have mic APIs... but it doesn't have a functional call recorder.
Just one more thing that Droid Doesn't and Palm Could [if it had its priorities lined up right]...
Thats the problem with Palm. Like you said when the PDK comes out. Palm always takes forever to release anything. We been waiting for palm to release a quality smartphone since the pre came out and imo we're still waiting.
Pulse Audio controls all access to audio hardware. How is Palm using it so they keep applications from using Pulse's interface for all audio?
Maybe this is a WebOS internals question, but can't any binary just access Pulse and get full control of mics? Not providing PDK hooks shouldn't keep out developers.
The most common reference I see to smart phones in magazine ads, other than phone ads themselves are the 2d barcodes. They're apparently ubiquitous on all the other phones. It sounds like this API is necessary in order for the developers of those tools to support WebOS. Time to get with the program, Palm!
You guys are officially *the* worst armchair strategists ever. No joke, this is ridiculous. One thing is missing from the beta of the PDK (and btw let's be honest, having the PDK at all is the big thing here, so Shazam can't launch an app just yet and we can't get better QRcode readers, stop the presses!) and you're sounding death knells? *eyes rolling all over the place* What kind of information do you have on the workings of Palm and their resources to be able to declare that they're "taking their sweet ass time"?
I wouldn't call them strategists but rather spoiled rotten babies.
But, that is just me.
So asking for features that have been available on day one from Android and within 8 months from iPhone and I think pretty much from the start on the Winmo is being spoiled? Wow. We are talking feature set 101 here. Palm isn't getting the job done, it really is that simple. My assumption is they are spending so much time squashing bugs they just don't have the manpower to do anything else.
For all the whining out here, these are LOW priority items!
Palm knows what their customers want, they also know what customers see as priorities as far as selling devices. 3d Gaming is flashy and sells pricy apps, so that came first. Video is universal on every phone out there and is used by a LOT of people. So that came next. Voice recording/Voice dial is almost as ubiquitous in devices, but is used by fewer people, so it is likely next on the list. barcode recognition is a very niche element and will do the elast to encourage app development, so you will likely see this further down the line. If you can't live without it, get another phone.
I'm sure though that once WebOS has all these elements, plus Flash D2G and who knows what else, someone will come along and complain about how his Pre doesn't do enough because it won't help him wipe his own backside.
A new breed of apps...
like SUPER spyware. Records your conversations, your GPS, and what you are looking at.
No thanks. Keep the mic and camera private.
Yah because we all know how infested android, blackberry, iPhone, and WinMo are infested with spyware. Thank you for making excuses for Palm. My assumption is if they didn't have an API at all you would be saying all we need is what is included on the device and how dare you question Palm and their wisdom.
I should of brought some cheese for all this whine...
who cares about shazam.. palm keep making the OS itself better. Focus on the bread and butter and get that solid first. This will all come eventually.. unless you don't feel like waiting another month or so.
Then again i heard that the EVO supports flash right out of the box and flies and can do magic tricks for your dogs too.
Can it babysit my kids? If so I want it. Lol
Better pictures, better web browing (with flash out of the box), and 30,000 apps OUT OF THE BOX.
Granted the webOS was a new OS but COME ON NOW.
And dont even pretend like ANYTHING takes a month with palm.
Like each 1.x update up to this point didn't take a month.
Oh wait.
To be fair, I agree with the rest of your points (though I'll believe the full Flash support out of the box when I see it -- and who knows, Pre's Flash could be out by then anyway, so it would be what we in the business call a "moot point"). 8^)
"unless you don't feel like waiting another month or so"
Ahh so you are telling everyone it will be here in a month...right? This isn't about a single app. This is about accessing the capabilities of the device that EVERY other phone OS had had for a damn long time. If you consider this minor what next is considered minor? You can reason everything away until you are left with nothing but Palm doing nothing but bug squashing. Screw the features. Heck lets get rid of the SDK altogether and just have a bare bones phone because apps are overrated. In which case we may as well throw the concept of the smartphone out the window and go back to basic feature phones that just show your calendar and contacts.
If all Palm can do at this point is clean up their buggy code then they are in deep. There should be NO reason that they can't squash bugs, and add features to the SDK unless they are short on resources.
I'll be blunt, I was looking at the Pre as my next phone. As it stands the Pre:
Hasn't had a hardware update in almost a year. (and there is zero indication we are going to see anything new anytime soon.)
Lacks features in the OS that competitors had at launch.
Doesn't have some some baseline apps that all the others have had since pretty much launch (shazam being a good example. Or Barcode Reader; and no QR deCODEr does NOT count since they are doing a hack to get around the limitations of the OS by processing the image off device and only after you snap a pic then upload the pict via the app.)
At what point do we stop giving Palm the benefit of the doubt? 3 months from now? 8 months from now? A year from now? And at what point do the excuses run dry? Palm isn't getting the job done. Period. A perfect example of this is the 1.4 update. What a massive buggy cluster. Daylight savings time bugs? REALLY? No really? Syncing of time between screens on the device is off? These are not small bugs. We are talking core features of the device that are broken. And frankly as much as I hate saying it because Palm does have the best UI in any smartphone OS, the OS almost a year later is only half baked. And this includes the SDK as well since the minute you talk smartphone you are talking apps as well. Half baked and there is no clear indication as to when this will be taken care of....unless you expect it in "another month or so". Because god knows between now and the launch of the Pre wasn't enough time.
Shazam, shazam, shazam... dammit, dammit, dammit!
Point is, most of us PreCentral readers want Palm to succeed, but it hurts to see so many phones out there with all of the extra features that the Pre should already have. Palm sacrificed with a gamble to look at long term growth, not short profit gains. What I mean is WebOS is a starter platform capable of everything everyone's complaining it doesn't have, but in order for us to have this amazing OS, they needed to focus on the UI instead of lots of features with a garbage UI. Palm is a small company whose resources focus on one thing at a time because they have no choice financially. So it comes to this: those with patience will give WebOS the time it needs to grow. If it doesn't succeed, then so be it. We all got an opportunity to experience a beautiful, functional OS that wasn't branded 'Apple' or 'BB' or 'Google'. Everyone can gravitate to the EVO or whatever else comes out soon. But.... if Palm does survive and WebOS matures to where it can eventually get too, then the features of the OS would and will far exceed any OS out there today. So don't get mad, just make a choice. Sprint users have only a year before full upgrade status on their accounts, so for people like me, I'm not worried. I'm just having fun watching all these tech goodies come out!
There's something about the phrases "extra features" and "should have" that just doesn't mesh.
As for the Android OS being beautiful and functional.. I'm a Google nut, I use pretty much every service they offer and I was very excited about the Android OS, but it simply is not 'beautiful'. Nor is it elegant or intuitive. It's very functional, but not smoothly so. I was very close to getting a Hero, or waiting for a Droid, but after using WebOS, nothing else on the market compares.
And really, what does WebOS need? Mic support is a biggie for some but camera access is a very niche element. What else is there? Let's not start on hardware, that's separate from WebOS. Ditto apps like Flash and D2G, they have nothing to do with WebOS or even Palm. The OS has almost every feature the average consumer could want and then some along with the smoothest most elegant and intuitive UI on the market. nothing else even comes close.
Sorry but once you get use to walking into a store and bookmarking an item with the barcode scanner for future reference (I was in a wine store in Chicago where they had something interesting. Or at Barnes and Noble and scanned a book and found it for $7 cheaper online and ordered it right there.) or scanned it to see if you can get a better deal somewhere else.....you just can't go back. You call it niche. That is like saying access to your calendar is niche. If you have never used it before how the heck do you know its niche? And then there is google goggles that uses the camera. Ahh but Google can't implement that or half of what every other OS has because the SDK is so limited.
Palm better be comming out with a hell of an update soon in starting to think they had to fire all there employees to keep afloat. they need to start listining to the homebrew community.
I understand that a lot of you won't understand this reference but here goes.......PALM IS THE NEW COMMODORE