Hunter mentions two pain points in particular that are deathblow to gaming and other sophisticated applications that require significant graphical juice (granted, Palm was more or less open from the start that games wouldn’t be a priority at first). Developers can’t use OpenGL ES to the tap the Pre’s graphics hardware. For an idea of what a big deal OpenGL access is, see our posts spanking over everything the iPhone 3GS can do with OpenGL 2.0 that the original iPhone and 3G can’t. Basically, anything requiring hardware graphics acceleration is screwed if it goes through the Mojo SDK, since they can’t use OpenGL at all. (There are, of course, unofficial paths.)

The other gimpage, which is somewhat inexplicable, is that Palm limits polling of accelerometer data to 4Hz, or 4 samples a second—Hunter says you need at least 20Hz for “smooth inputs” and 50-100Hz for apps like his own gMeter iPhone app, which measures stuff like velocity and acceleration. So it’s nearly useless.

Palm actually shoots itself in the foot two ways with a weak SDK. First, it limits developers who choose to make apps for the platform. Second, it pushes away devs who might be interested, like Hunter, who points out the very real opportunity Palm has to lure programmers away from the massively overcrowded App Store with the promise of a virgin ecosystem.

And we’ve still got a couple of months before Palm’s App Catalog really opens. Which, even granting Palm’s moving along quicker than Apple did after the original iPhone, they should be jumping at every possible advantage they can get to grow their ecosystem if they want to really claw their way into a mobile space that’s not just increasingly crowded, but one where Apple’s shadow seems to grow a little bit longer everyday. [Craig Hunter via Groober]

That’s later than we’d like—the sooner the Pre starts building a robust developer community, the more likely the platform is to thrive—but to be fair, we had to wait a whole year for iPhone apps. In the meantime, they’ve got a trickle of apps that’ll be hitting the App Catalog to keep Pre owners sated (sorta). Coincidentally, Palm’s App Catalog will be launch right around the same time as Window Mobile’s, so we should be in for an app-y fall. [WebOSdev via Palm]

Mojo is of the utmost importance to Palm: Without a huge and vibrant developer scene churning out tons of apps, the Pre might not excel as a platform enough to challenge the iPhone. The SDK that leaked is a beta, and some are warning potential developers to treat this version as a guide rather than a final release. Now the fun really begins—it’s time to see what the Pre (and Pre community) can do. [PreInsiders, Thanks Pat!]

On the one hand, it’s good news that they’re going to get an SDK available in three or four months from launch. The iPhone took an entire year to get an SDK available. The bad news is you have to wait three or four months to get Palm Pre apps that aren’t from people with closer relationships to Palm.

But, they’re going to “accelerate” their early access program, letting in more developers into their inner circle. That’s good news, since it means an increasing amount of apps between now and the general release of the SDK. [Palm blog]

And of course, it comes with a new beta of the SDK and iTunes 8.2. We will update this post as we get new information about what’s new—if anything. [Thanks Hugo]

Google has announced that the Android 1.5 “Early Look” SDK is now available to developers, and man, does it bring the features. Check out the list below.

There are a lot of new toys for developers, including some kind of emulator configuration thing called Android Virtual Devices, or AVDs, that apparently will make developers’ lives way easier. That’s cool for them, but what do we get?

April 2009

The Android 1.5 platform introduces many new features for users and developers. The list below provides an overview of the changes.
User interface refinements

* System-wide:
o Refinement of all core UI elements
o Animated window transitions (off by default)
o Accelerometer-based application rotations
* UI polish for:
o In-call experience
o Contacts, Call log, and Favorites
o SMS & MMS
o Browser
o Gmail
o Calendar
o Email
o Camera & Gallery
o Application management

Performance improvements

* Faster Camera start-up and image capture
* Much faster acquisition of GPS location (powered by SUPL AGPS)
* Smoother page scrolling in Browser
* Speedier GMail conversation list scrolling

New features

* On-screen soft keyboard
o Works in both portrait and landscape orientation
o Support for user installation of 3rd party keyboards
o User dictionary for custom words
* Home screen
o Widgets
+ Bundled home screen widgets include: analogue clock, calendar, music player, picture frame, and search
o Live folders
* Camera & Gallery
o Video recording
o Video playback (MPEG-4 & 3GP formats)
* Bluetooth
o Stereo Bluetooth support (A2DP and AVCRP profiles)
o Auto-pairing
o Improved handsfree experience
* Browser
o Updated with latest Webkit browser & Squirrelfish Javascript engines
o Copy ‘n paste in browser
o Search within a page
o User-selectable text-encoding
o UI changes include:
+ Unified Go and Search box
+ Tabbed bookmarks/history/most-visited screen
* Contacts
o Shows user picture for Favorites
o Specific date/time stamp for events in call log
o One-touch access to a contact card from call log event
* System
o New Linux kernel (version 2.6.27)
o SD card filesystem auto-checking and repair
o SIM Application Toolkit 1.0
* Google applications
o View Google Talk friends’ status in Contacts, SMS, MMS, GMail, and Email applications
o Batch actions such as archive, delete, and label on Gmail messages
o Upload videos to Youtube
o Upload photos on Picasa

Whoa. Soft keyboard, widgets, video recording (with YouTube uploading capabilities!), updated browser features like tabs, system-wide UI polishing… This is a killer upgrade. So, uh, thanks, Google! [Phandroid, thanks trigatch!]

Here’s a piece of what Ars is quoting from the new agreement:

You will not, through use of the Apple Software, services or otherwise, create any Application or other program that would disable, hack or otherwise interfere with the Security Solution, or any security, digital signing, digital rights management, verification or authentication mechanisms implemented in or by the iPhone operating system software, iPod touch operating system software, this Apple Software, any services or other Apple software or technology, or enable others to do so…

It also says that anyone using the SDK to develop software can then only get distribution through the App Store, and at Apple’s sole discretion. As Ars points out, it’s not going to dry up jailbreakers, but it will make those grey area developers a little more skeered of swerving from the path. [Ars Technica]

What does He have in store for us?:

heads-up (for reals) to check back later today (or follow palm_inc on Twitter) for an update direct from the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco.

What could this mean? Industry analyst Prince Dr Armahdieu Ayomide:

An SDK? A release date? A price? These things are possible, but this is true: I would like inform you that Scarlett Johansson (actress) actually is a clone from original person Scarlett Galabekian last name, who has nothing with acting career. That clone was created illegally by using stolen biological material. Original person is very nice (not d**n sexy),most important – CHRISTIAN young lady! I’ll tell you more,those clones (it’s not only one) made in GERMANY – world leader manufacturer of humans clones, it is in Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rhineland-Palatinate, Mr. Helmut Kohl home town.

You can not even imaging the scale of the cloning activity.

[Palm via Engadget]

We initially suspected a bug, perhaps, but he also says that the streaming code is unchanged between 1.2 and 1.3. So, uh, we’re not too sure what the hell happened here. And what does this mean for other streaming apps that use a lot of bandwidth, like Pandora? All of this is not to mention that AT&T has assured us over and over that the iPhone plan is truly unlimited. Good to know the standard App Store review policy is still in effect, though. [return7 via Ars]