To our Palm Computing platform developers,
As part of our continued commitment to being as open with you as possible,
we would like to let you know what we tried to do for developers for the
recent Palm V(TM) and Palm IIIx(TM) connected organisers.
We had planned a number of things including:
1. Releasing early information about the move to Dragonball EZ.
2. Do internal sanity check testing on a large number of existing
applications.
3. Give some limited access to hardware.
4. Notify our developers before the general press releases went out.
5. Have Palm V and IIIx units available at developer rates for immediate
purchase.
6. Have information in the Developer Zone about the new units.
Of these items we were able to do:
1. Last August we released a special version of the Dragonball EZ ROM, a
version of Palm OS(TM) Emulator, and compatibility notes.
2. We tested a large number of applications, focusing on applications that
had participated in our Palm Computing Platform Solution Library program.
3. At the Palm Computing Platform Worldwide Developer Conference we had a
number of prototype Dragonball EZ units available for developers to use.
Unfortunately, we were not able to complete 4, 5 and 6 in the time that we
would have liked. This was due to a series of unfortunately timed illnesses
and one early baby. Please be assured that we will work on making future
product launches go more smoothly for you.
I would also like to update you on the status of 5 and 6:
5. We will have units available for U.S. program members to purchase at the
developer discount by the end of next week. As for members outside of the
U.S., we are investigating how to extend the developer discount program to
you.
6. We have now posted an update to the documentation that includes
information on new APIs. We will also post a page that summarises the
differences by the end of next week.
There have also been concerns about the value of our Solution Provider
Program. We are looking at those concerns, and we are continuing to add
features that increase the value of the programs. As an example, by the end
of next week we will have a new Development Resources Seeding program that
will include all the debug and non-debug ROMs. We will also use this
program to seed the Palm VII device ROMs and tools. Look for information on
this members only program by the end of this week.
We thank you for continuing to support our platform.
Respectfully
Gabriel Acosta-Lopez
Director Platform Development Services
Palm Computing(R) - a 3Com(R) Company
