Developers, start your engines. It’s been a long time coming but Palm’s Mojo SDK — the Software Development Kit that facilitates application development on the webOS platform — is finally ready for prime time. Having previously been available only to a select group of partners, many have been openly disappointed with Palm for taking so long to allow open access to the SDK. From a consumer standpoint, that’s the reason Pre owners have all of 30 apps to choose from in the App Catalog right now. Skimpy selection is soon to be a thing of the past however, as we presume developers will hit this SDK faster than you can say, “please keep farting apps off my Pre.” The bad news: Palm still won’t be accepting developer submissions until the fall.

[Via The Official Palm Blog]

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Oops. Following Palm’s decision to let some new devs into the early access program yesterday, the company’s apparent worst nightmare just came true: People can play actually with the Mojo SDK. Nooooooooo. One of the devs who was finally given access to the SDK decided he/she would take matters into his/her own hands and leak it on an IRC channel for all those who have been denied access to this point. We’re not going to post a link to the SDK of course, but it really shouldn’t be all that hard to find if you know how to use Google. You do know how to do that, right?

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All you developers out there who are anxious to get your hands on the webOS SDK apparently won’t have to wait too much longer. Palm announced on its developer blog that it is expanding its Mojo SDK early access program, increasing the number of developers from hundreds to thousands over the next few weeks in doing so. Palm will also be releasing additional resources outside of the early access program — such as the open source webOS components now available on Palm’s open source portal — and relaxing its confidentiality rules to allow early Mojo developers to more freely communicate with the outside world. Most importantly, Palm revealed that it plans to release the SDK to the public by the end of the summer. Woo!

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It was pretty clear from the start that Palm has big plans for webOS — despite blogger excitement when the company confirmed more webOS handsets would be coming, Palm obviously didn’t build a new OS from the ground up for one device. What has been and is still up in the air however, is how developers will respond to webOS and its development environment, the Mojo SDK. Palm, like other smartphone companies, will be relying heavily on third parties to enhance its platform by introducing exciting, innovative and useful applications. We know the Pre is sexy and we know the webOS UI is sexy, but what about the guts? According to Network World, developers who have been checking out the SDK so far seem to feel that Mojo is both very inviting and easy to work with. Score. Palm chose JavaScript, HTML and CSS the foundation for apps and as such, there is nothing new for developers to learn. If they can build a web page, they can build a webOS app. Christian Sepulveda, vice president of business development at Pivotal Labs is quoted as saying, “It’s a completely new way of thinking about an OS on mobile devices.” He’s right of course — Palm has taken old and familiar technology accessible to just about any dev out there, and hidden it beneath a stunning UI and UX. We don’t know about you, but we can’t wait to see what devs can do with this killer combo.

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Thanks to one of our ninjas, we’ve got some shots of the inner-workings of the webOS SDK. For starters, everything is tested and previewed in the web browser (our shots are of the Mac version, so Safari), which bodes well for Palm’s “anyone who knows how to program in Javascrizzy can write an application”, line. We’re told that even in Safari, apps work just like they would on the actual device, and much like the iPhone Simulator, just in the web browser. This means scrolling and rubberband-man bouncing. Very cool and very sneaky. The SDK operates as a local server that serves up the web pages (applications), and you can hook into it from your local browser. We’re not going to lie — SDKs for the most part aren’t really our cup of tea — this whole thing reminds us of the iPhone web apps era. But, if you do seek more information, our ninja was gracious enough to field questions. So if you’re really interested in this, drop some comments, and we’ll pass them over and get them answered. Screenshots are in the gallery!

Click on over to our Palm webOS Mojo SDK

Update: Our ninja answered some of you questions below!

After seeing the massive amount of buzz Palm generated surrounding the announcement of its Pre and new mobile operating system WebOS, mobile developers are undoubtedly just as excited as everyone else to get in on the action. Good news, mobile coders; an anonymous developer who has spent some time with Palm’s new Mojo SDK has shared some insight as far as when you can expect. Just like WebOS and the Pre itself, it appears as though Palm’s new SDK is a breath of fresh air as well. The shrouded dev essentially called the WebOS development experience the antithesis of iPhone development on several levels. From SDK usability and incorporated technologies to OS integration and even developer relations – it seems as though Palm covered all of its bases when building its savior. Palm has already made it known that it will launch its own on-device App Store, dubbed App Catalog, and this gushing account of the developer experience is yet another check mark in the Palm column. Throw a few more handsets and a few more big carrier deals into the mix and Palm might have to wear shades…

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