14 DAY TRIAL // Sunnyvale-based mobile phone maker Palm, Inc. announced on Tuesday at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) the public release of a beta version of its Palm webOS Plug-in Development Kit (PDK). According to the company, the new software solution comes as a new component of the webOS SDK, offering developers the possibility to use C and C++, as well as the web technologies that power the SDK, and mix them within a single application.
The newly released PDK is expected to complement the Palm webOS SDK through offering new functionalities, such as immersive 3D graphics, enabling developers with software solutions built for other operating systems the possibility to easily port them to the webOS platform. The beta PDK is already available for download, so that developers can already start building games, Palm notes, adding that the titles will still require some functionalities that will arrive only with a future Palm webOS update.
“Palm webOS is the go-to platform for great games on two of the three leading carrier networks,” said Katie Mitic, senior vice president, Product Marketing, Palm, Inc. “We have both the developer tools and the hardware necessary for a world-class gaming experience, and an impressive portfolio of webOS game titles from top-notch developers to show for it.”
The webOS Plug-in Development Kit has been developed so as to enable easy porting of C/C++ applications to webOS, those using OpenGL ES 1.1 or 2.0 included, and to offer easy integration of C/C++ components for enhanced capabilities of applications. The company has released the public beta of the PDK for developers using a Windows-based PC or a Mac computer, stating that the final version will include support for Linux too. Additional details on this development tool are available on the Palm Developer Center website.
“The Palm webOS PDK is extremely powerful and far-reaching, as evidenced by the number of titles we’ve been able to bring to the webOS platform in a very short time,” said Baudouin Corman, vice president of publishing, Americas, Gameloft. “It’s quite difficult to make a great phone that’s also an outstanding gaming platform; Palm has been successful delivering both.”
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