We’ve been waiting for Palm (NSDQ: PALM) to release its webOS 1.2 update ever since rumors pointed at a September 24 launch date. That day came and passed with nary a peep from Palm. Today, Palm is making some noise with the release of webOS 1.2 and its support for premium, paid webOS apps. The arrival of paid apps in webOS 1.2 is a milestone for the app-lacking webOS App Catalog – the kind of milestone that will hopefully entice developers with revenue possibilities and kick webOS development into high gear.

But, there’s more. webOS 1.2 supports direct downloading from the web. The Amazon MP3 app now allows users to purchase and download music over-the-air to the phone, WiFi connection or no. Zooming into a webpage is now more intuitive and music playback can be controlled from the touchscreen when the device is locked.

Want to learn more? Hit up Palm’s changelog for webOS 1.2 here.

When Google (NSDQ: GOOG) says “stop,” you stop (and desist). Just ask Cyanogen. The prolific Android hacker/modder/developer has apparently been issued the dreaded “cease and desist” notice from the almighty Google. From what we can gather, Google isn’t taking Cyanogen’s Android hacking lightly – especially the part where he distributes closed-source Android apps like Market, Talk, Gmail, and YouTube with his customized Android ROMs. The problem is that Cyanogen isn’t licensed to distribute those apps. For his part, Cyanogen is trying to arguing that he’s developing these customized Android ROMs for “Google Experience” handsets that are already licensed to use the controversial apps.

If Cyanogen were a lesser-known Android modder, this might not be a big deal. But, Cyanogen pushes out some of the most popular custom Android ROMs available today (One of my own Android smartphones is running a Cyanogen ROM). With over 30,000 users favoring a Cyanogen-flavored Android build to the more vanilla stock builds, a lot of people are going to be left out in the cold if Google refuses to work with Cyanogen.

The ball’s in Google’s court. Unfortunately, like a grouchy old neighbor hoarding your errant Frisbees, Google may not give it back.

[Update]
Cyanogen will try to continue CyanogenMod ROM development by stripping his ROMs of any Google Experience apps. Read more about it here.

[Via: AndroidAndMe]

Nokia has launched a competition for UK Mobile Apps developers, and is offering a decent wedge of cash to the winner – how does £20,000 sound to you?!

The competition is called “Calling All Innovators” and will have 5 categories:

• Social location
• Business and productivity
• Communications and social networking
• Games
• Just for fun

Apparently each of the category winners will get £2500, a one-year membership to Forum Nokia Launchpad (I really hope that’s not just a branded trampoline, sounds like it…), and distribution of their App on the Nokia Ovi store. However, one of those Apps will win overall, and it’s this one that will grab the £20K!

The deadline for entries is 30th November, and we’ll know who the winners are by the end of the years. If you want to know more, you should check out the official website here.

[Via: Mobile-ent.biz]

As if the launch of Vodafone (NYSE: VOD) 360 (see here) wasn’t enough, Vodafone are going big on a talent search for the best Mobile Widgets!

At its international Developer Event today, Vodafone is announcing the launch of a two-phased competition to find the most innovative and useful mobile widgets, giving two victorious developers the chance to bank up to €100,000 in prize money. Vodafone will outline the widget capabilities of the new Vodafone 360 mobiles at today’s Developer Event in front of content publishers, web and mobile developers from around the world.

Split into two phases (the first phase now and second phase during 2010), the Vodafone Appstar competition has a combined prize fund of €1,000,000 which will be shared across eight of Vodafone’s largest European operating companies to encourage innovation in the mobile application and widget space. The participating eight countries are: UK, Ireland, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, Spain, Portugal and Greece.

In the initial round of each phase of the competition, developers from anywhere in the world can submit widgets compatible with the new Vodafone 360 mobiles to any one of these eight markets via a competition website. A panel of experts from the local Vodafone operating company will then select three winning entries based on three criteria:

• User experience
• Innovation
• Value to the customer

The developers responsible for the top three mobile widgets will be awarded prize money of €25,000, €15,000 and €10,000 for coming first, second and third respectively. The €25k winner will also have their entry submitted into a Pan-European competition to decide the best of the best. The eight competition winners’ widgets will then be put to the public vote within the participating eight countries and the winning developer will pocket a further prize of €75, 000, bringing their total prize money to €100,000. The runner up will win a total of €50,000.

Software developers will be asked to write applications based on the latest Joint Innovation Lab (JIL) Software Developer Kit found at www.jil.org. For full details of the competition, please visit the website at www.jil.org/vodafone/appstar.

And that’s basically it! Extending the Vodafone 360 impact in one easy swoop, by targeting developers – clever move, I like it – and the result should hopefully be some really decent Widget apps…

For more on Vodafone 360, click here.

Sprint (NYSE: S) has announced support for the Android platform on its developer website. The new portion of the site is designed to “give developers the tools needed to create innovative applications for Android-powered devices.”

Developers utilizing the site and tools will easily be able to create and test applications for the Android platform on the Sprint network. The enhanced Web site will include information about Sprint’s Android-powered devices and will feature compelling applications that are available in Android Market.

In addition, the carrier announced that its upcoming Sprint Open Developer Conference, which is taking place from October 26th to 28th in Santa Clara, California, will include several sessions dedicated to Android development including information from HTC and Google (NSDQ: GOOG).

Augmented reality applications like Layar or Wikitude are awesome, but they are inherently flawed since all the effort put forth at creating data for one particular application can’t be read in a different application. Mobilizy, creator of the first augmented reality application for mobile phones known as Wikitude, is proposing to the augmented reality consortium (didn’t even know such a thing existed) that ARML (augmented reality markup language) be the standard every augmented reality company should use to represent their data. ARML is simply an extension to KML (keyhole markup language) which is already widely used for location based services. This could not have come any sooner. For augmented reality to flourish, there should be a million billion trillion augmented reality viewers and data sources, versus a tight coalition of companies dominating the space. Bravo to Mobilizy for getting the ball rolling, I’m hoping that Layar CEO Raimo van der Klein joins the bandwagon.

[Via: Read Write Web, Mobilizy]

iPhone developers the world over have been up in arms recently over Apple (NSDQ: AAPL)’s handling of iPhone application submissions and approvals for the AppStore. Apple has been criticized for keeping their AppStore certification process as transparent as coal and basically giving some iPhone developers the cold shoulder. So, in an attempt to right its AppStore wrongs, Apple has just launched their AppStore Resource Center to try and guide devs through the process of getting their iPhone apps approved. Unfortunately, the move has done little more than to further frustrate iPhone devs.

According to ArsTechnica, iPhone devs have voiced their disapproval of Apple’s new AppStore Resource Center. One developer called out Apple for not really doing anything to help devs. The supposed help center is apparently nothing more than “a collection of documents that were already out there, just condensed into one place.” In its current form, the Resource Center is all but useless. What the iPhone dev community needs, according to another developer, is a clearly defined list of criteria for iPhone app certification. Instead, Apple put a bandage on a half-hearted attempt to get in good with devs, and that’s just not acceptable.

The idea behind the AppStore Resource Center is sound. iPhone developers could use an online resource that clearly defines guidelines for AppStore approval as well as a community where questions can be answered. It’s just too bad Apple let their loose ends trip them up. Public face-plants can be embarrassing.

AppStore Resource Center

[Via: AppScout]

Got an HTC Touch Diamond2 in your pocket? Well, first of all, you’re one lucky S.O.B. Second, you’ve probably noticed that the LED indicator light up towards the top of your Diamond2 sometimes fails to turn “green” when the battery is topped off. After paying handsomely for one of this year’s hottest Windows Mobile touchscreen smartphones, that’s probably all kinds of annoying. Turns out, HTC’s all over this one and has issued a new hotfix for Diamond2 owners.

The HTC Touch Diamond2 hotfix is available here. It will patch your Diamond2 so that the LED will show “green” when fully charged.

[Via: Coolsmartphone]

iPhone and iPhone 3G owners still waiting to update their jailbroken smartphone to the iPhone 3.1 OS are in luck today. The iPhone Dev Team has just released their latest PwnageTool update! With the new PwnageTool utility, iPhone users can update to jailbroken iPhone 3.1 OS firmware without worrying about losing the jailbreak (which allows installation of unofficial apps) or the software unlock (which allows the iPhone to work on any GSM network in the world). The bad news is that iPhone 3GS users will have to wait it out a bit longer – the Dev Team is working on an updated redsn0w utility that will allow the iPhone 3GS to be updated to the latest iPhone OS version without losing the jailbreak or unlock.

That’s good news and all for iPhone users without an extra “s” to call their own, but what’s the holdup for iPhone 3GS owners? Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) apparently changed the way they update iPhone firmwares. The new update procedure requires the iPhone to phone home and verify its firmware version. Apple is locking down the iPhone 3GS, and locking it down good.

Still, the Team is working on a jailbreak method that will at least preserve the jailbreak and unlock for the iPhone 3GS until Apple’s next iPhone OS release. It’s a waiting game at this point.

Find the updated PwnageTool utility for iPhone and iPhone 3G here. If you’ve already updated to iPhone 3.1 OS and miss your jailbreak, you’ll do well to hit up saurik’s (of Cydia fame) tutorial on how to downgrade your iPhone back to iPhone 3.0 OS.

[Via: iPhoneDevTeam]

Those waiting for a big ol’ bite of the Donut code branch from Android  probably won’t have to wait too much longer, as the software development kit for version 1.6 of Google (NSDQ: GOOG)’s mobile operating system has just been released. What’s in store?

• Support for different screen resolutions, types, and sizes
• Support for CDMA
• Quick Search box from home screen provides predictive results from web and device
• Text-to-speech language translations
• Market update with screenshots and filters for new, top paid, and top free downloads within categories
• Improved camera capture speed and UI
• VPN options
• New accessibility tools
• Ability for developers to create recognized gestures

For a closer look, check out the changelog here, or for the devs in the house, see the new APIs or download the SDK here.

[via Android Developer Blog]