Interview with James Harris, webOS Developer Extrodinare

Max Haub: I'm here with James, the webOS developer responsible for Flash Cards, Zip Code Tools, Free Music Ringtones, and as of this morning GPS Fix. How are you, James, and thank you for taking the time for talking to me.
James Harris: I am great Max, really jazzed about talking with you today.

Max: You are most known for the amazing Flash Cards app for webOS. When you started it out in the homebrew catalog, did you ever think it would become this big?

James: No, I never imagined it growing into what it is today. I just wanted to do something different. Doing app development was new for me, and I tackled it head on. Now it's the #10 highest grossing app of all time.

Max: That is pretty amazing. And as a student I can tell you it's saved me more than once.

James: It was designed for people like you. It's a dull subject, and one many want to avoid. So I tried to make it fun. Bring something different to the table. Also spent a great deal of time learning how people actually learn.

Max: It's a great app. And for those that don't know, it recently was a winner in Palm's Hot Apps Promotion, which I think we can both agree is what makes Palm such a great platform to develop for.

James: I agree wholeheartedly! Palm is great to their developers. A rich, engaging team of employees interact with us daily to help, motivate, and rustle a few feathers when needed.

Max: Yep. Now, you just passed another important milestone just this morning, correct?

James: Yes, GPS Fix launched publicly this morning. It aims to solve all the GPS related issues on your device. Opens up the world of location-aware apps and will probably move into the augmented reality realm as well. Will really help the power of webOS and its multi-tasking shine for these types of apps.

Max: And it uses a bit of "special homebrew sauce" to help out Verizon webOS users with aGPS issues.

James: LOL, yes! It's the first app compatible for the App Catalog that actually uses real webOS Homebrew. It helps show even more how open Palm really is with their platform.

Max: Exactly. Plus it shows how Palm is more committed to helping users out by giving them the tools they need instead of being a closed off system. Apple would probably have never allowed something like this.

James: I doubt anyone would have even thought to try this on Apple, little alone get it through the review process.

Max: Very true. And I think it shows how great the webOS homebrew community is. I think we've stuck a good middle ground between Apple and Android in the open/closed spectrum. Meaning that our homebrew community is very closely knit, and is encouraged by Palm.

James: Indeed. Palm does support us very much, even if they cannot allow it by default on devices. They never say "No".

Max: Exactly. And it's great that HP seems to have adopted that strategy as well. Speaking of HP, I think everyone is excited about what they're going to do for the platform and the Palm brand overall. Do you have anything in particular you'd like to see from HP that Palm might not have been able to do as an independent company?

James: There is a lot HP can, and will do for Palm. The first thing is new devices. Palm had that moving already, but HP will help create more of a family of devices, including slates and tablets. The next big thing is distribution. More carriers in more countries. Top it off with a healthy R&D Budget, access to thousands of Engineers, and some great marketing will help too. The possibilities are endless with one of the largest tech manufacturers in the world.

Max: Do you think a webOS tablet could break the mindshare the iPad has as being the tablet to get?

James: Apple has the mindshare, but HP can take the market share by keeping things open. Swappable batteries, Printer integration, and USB capabilities will give people what they need. They will ultimately choose the product with the most capabilities.

Max: You and I came to webOS as knowing from the CES keynote what to expect, and knowing what it can do. But with the failed marketing strategy, and a dwindling user base, many people to this day haven't even heard of webOS. And I think on the last DevCast you were talking about this as well. How we in the thick of the webOS community have a skewed view on what we think of as the normal webOS user.

James: You are correct. Developers are a small subset of the actual user base. Most people walk into a store and get whatever device is on sale, or the salesperson talks them into. There's no research beforehand other than maybe price. We need to be mindful of this when we consider the apps we develop and who they are designed for.

Max: Exactly. But I think we need an entire paradigm shift. Just today I was talking to my friend and he said the iPhone was the best platform because of all the apps, and he looks at webOS and thinks, "Wow that must be terrible, looks at the low number of apps!" So what I'm trying to get to here is the community needs to go out and get people, and not just expect people to find us. Because they’re just not coming.

James: Apple has driven the idea of apps. They really innovated in that space. But yes, we need to change the paradigm. Having 500 tip calculators is not innovation. You can say it is choice, but not much choice when you have 500 that do the same thing. That is why FlashCards thrives, it is quality. It is thought out, methodical, and has its own personality. As soon as people realize this, Palm will win more market share. We have some very high quality apps.

Max: Very true. I mean yes there are some great apps in the App Store, I can think of Doodle Jump just to name one, but for every Doodle Jump there are hundreds of spam apps to sort through. Whereas on webOS, we have apps like FlashCards, Digloo, YouView, and the spam to quality ratio is much, much less.

James: Exactly. Our developer base actually cares about the experience more than the financial. Not that there is no money to be made. FlashCards was a part-time development project and has pulled in a lot of money.

Max: With a pretty large bonus.

James: That is nice too. Was great to wake up one day with a $12,000 bonus waiting for you. Tends to put a lil spring in your step .

Max: I'm sure.

Max: Just yesterday, BlackBerry announced the Torch, as I'm sure you know. With that, they announced you could create apps using HTML/JavaScript/CSS.

James: I wonder where they got that idea from.

Max: I have a guess.

Max: And I'm sure you know where I'm going with this, but do you have any plans on porting FlashCards or Zip Code Tools to the new BlackBerry 6?

James: I am unsure about porting my apps to other platforms. As a financial move, it would be great. But I do webOS programming as a hobby, in my spare time. It's fun. Palm is open, they care about us. We have the best developer community for any platform. By moving to other platforms, I will not get that. It would be a cold, drab world with them, and that does not interest me. No, I am sticking with webOS. This is where the party is at, and I arrived a bit early.

Max: Alright. And speaking of porting apps, we need to get some iPhone devs to make their way to webOS.

James: Yes! The PDK makes this possible in a matter of hours. Not to mention the $1 million in bonus prizes for PDK apps. It's really a win-win for iPhone developers. They can port their app over in very short order while expanding their customer base. They make money off sales, and can then win some extra cash for it. I have even heard reports of companies doing webOS as their test bed. The speed with which they can develop makes it the ideal place to test the waters with new ideas and features.

Max: I heard that as well, although I can't remember what company it was about. Changing the subject yet again, John Rubenstein has said webOS 2.0 is coming out this year. We all are awaiting this and the new features that are coming with it. What are you most excited about?

James: Microphone API and GPU acceleration. It's a toss up. The custom services are actually the big thing, along with the Couch DB storage. Both will open apps up to new, unbelievable possibilities.

Max: Yeah I was going to mention the new db8 storage system. I think that is going to make it very easy for developers to make apps, because of its speed and server integration. And I’m also excited for any possible announcement of new hardware that is coming out.

James: You and me both! My Christmas list is done already!

Max: Haha. However I think it really is time for some new hardware. The Pre is great, but it does look a bit lackluster compared to the competition

James: We all focus on the hardware because Apple releases a new device each year. The Pre is actually solid. With some of the things we know are coming in webOS 2.0, it will feel brand new.

Max: Very true. I never really thought of it that way, but your absolutely right. The camera would be nice as well.

James: But I would like a front facing camera, maybe a bigger screen, and a magnometer.

Max: And it's not even about the specs anymore. It's just the names of the specs. For example the new BB Torch has a 5 megapixel camera. Great! But cramming 5 MPs into a small sensor like that isn't something a camera can handle. But people don’t know that and they get away with it.

James: People focus on the megapixels. That's great for large images, but can it take QUALITY pictures and at the speed webOS does? It's all about new. An OS can be new as well. Look at the iPad, it launched without iOS 4. Bigger is not always better, but we are focused on the quantity. WebOS differentiates by quality. I'm just saying.

Max: I hate that we have to end this, but unfortunately it is that time. Any last words?

James: Just keep your head up, and innovate. There is plenty of opportunity for even small indie devs to make it big on webOS. Put some quality into your apps and people will notice. They will drive you to the top as well, so listen to them.

Max: James, I'd like to thank you for taking the time to talk today. You can find any one of James’s apps in the Palm App Catalog, FlashCards, Zip Code Tools, and the new GPS Fix as well. He is also one of the co-hosts of the webOSRoundup's DevCast, which I suggest you check out as well. James, thank you.

James: Thank you, Max.

You can find James online at his website, on Twitter, on the webOSRoundup DevCast, and of course all over the Palm App Catalog.

A Semi-Definitive Preware Blacklist List

Now that you have the option to blacklist, or leave out certain categories from the list of apps shown, we can finally sort out all of the App Spam that’s plagued our App Catalog for so long. This spam is only going to get worse now that Palm has taken out all fees from the ecosystem. Here is a semi-definitive list of vendors, categories, and keywords you should keep out of your Preware app catalog:

Vendors:

• Brighthouse Labs—I’m not even going to explain this one.
• Appible Inc.—A smaller Brighthouse Labs that gained recognition for blatenly copying Dr. Podder. I’d explain that as well, but it’s too complex to even bother.
• AppBookShop.com
• Dijit
• Appwill Inc.
• Upward Mobility—Relatively new to the scene, but definitely making up for lost time.

I could go on and on, but I think PreCentral member tobias_funke pretty much summed it up in his forum post.

Tags

• Flashlight—One and done folks, one and done.
• Soundboard—Same thing. Unless it’s super cool. You know what I mean.

That’s it. Again it’s semi-definitive, not iron clad, so if you know of anything, be sure to let me know.

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Hello World.

Hello world. This is webOS Center, and, as I’m sure you’ve guessed by the name of this blog, this is a blog focused on bringing you all the webOS news you can handle. [ED: If you die from the amazing webOS news, we are not at fault.] WebOS is, of choice, but seeing as Palm seems to be staying around as a brand name, we’ll of course, Palm’s mobile OS. Well, I guess you’d say it’s HP’s mobile OS just go with Palm. We’ll I’ll be writing about all the webOS news I can fit into the day, until the day is up, at which point I’ll write into the next day, and so on and so forth. Basically, you’ll be lucky if you get one post a day. (That’s a joke. You’ll get at least one post a day—and like it! No, I’m just serious…) Seriously though, this blog aims to bring you all the webOS news around in a fun and often opinionated way. And all of this will start—tomorrow.