Crack your knuckles and grab your caffeinated beverage of choice, because PreDevCamp is only a week away!

When: August 8, 2009 at 10:30 am

Where: theHIVE, 777 11^th Avenue [map]

Cost: Free, but please bring $5 to chip in for lunch

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER NOW!

I’m pleased to announce that preDevCamp San Diego will be hosted at theHIVE, downtown’s most fashionable co-working space.  Jason and the team have made a huge contribution to the SD tech scene by graciously hosting events such as SD Ruby, Django SD, SD Tech Founders, and the upcoming Ignite event.   Check their website to learn about the space and the creative professionals who work there, or stop by for the next free Jelly co-working day and say hi.
 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Survey
What do YOU want to learn at preDevCamp?  We’ve created a survey to get a feel for your background and what you’d rather focus on.  It’s also a dang good way to get an idea of what the event will be like.  Click here to take the survey!

Schedule
As always, keep in mind that this schedule can and probably will change.

• 10:00 – Doors open
• 10:30 – Introductions:  Who you are, what you do, and what you’d like to build
• 10:45  to 12:30 – Intro to Pre development, SDK installfest, hello world, HTML5, services api, frameworks
• 12:30 to 1:30 – Lunch
• 1:30 to 5:30 – Open hacking and group discussion:  website optimization, mobile UX, webOS internals hacking (running servers, homebrew apps, etc), whatever else comes up
• 6:00 to 6:30 – Demo your app, prizes
• 6:30 – Closing remarks
• 7:00 – Cleanup
• 8:00 – Afterparty at one of downtown’s fine drinking establishments

What you can do
The conference might be a week away, but here’s what you should start doing now.

• Brainstorm for app ideas. PreDevCamp San Diego will be very hands on, so start thinking about what app you’d like to build.  I’ll be announcing at least two contests in the next week, so make it good.

• Install the SDK, which is conveniently available for Windows, OS X, and Linux.  We can help you get this set up if you need it, but it’ll save a lot of time if everyone can get this done before the event.  And remember to update to the latest version if you have the beta SDK installed!
• Play with the emulator. If you don’t have a Pre, spend a few minutes with the emulator to get a feel for how webOS handles multi-tasking and notifications.  Be warned that the gestures are rather addictive!
• Connect with other attendees. There are over 1000 people registered for preDevCamp around the world, and they’re all as awesome as you are.  Get to know them on Facebook or our irc backchannel at #predevcamp on irc.freenode.net.
• Help get the word out. Post about preDevCamp on your blog or send a message to your favorite mailing list. There’s also a Facebook event you can use to invite your friends.

That’s it for now!  If you have any questions, please catch me or Dave on twitter or shoot me an email.  Happy hacking!

Hooray!  SandCHI, a San Diego user group dedicated to sharing research and ideas in computer-human interaction, is coming back from hiatus tomorrow by hosting a presentation on mobile app stores.  This is a great opportunity to learn more about the nuances of a mobile development ecosystem and how we can optimize the user experience.  Introduction from speaker Phil Ohme on the SandCHI mailing list:

Improving Mobile and App Store User Experiences
From the iPhone to the gPhone to the Pre, cutting edge mobile technologies promise to deliver new services to us. Yet how successfully are they achieving this and how could they be improved?  Part of their success, as Apple’s 1 billionth download demonstrates, is the ability to get a range of content easily. However, app stores have room for improvement, and they’re just the beginning for designing mobile ecosystems for customers.  Are you thinking about a mobile website or mobile app for your company? Is the mobile web just like the regular web?  What makes the iPhone so special and successful? Join us for the talk to find out.

The talk is Tuesday, May 12 at 5:45 at Websense, with dinner and drinks to follow.  I’ll definitely be there, so email info at sandchi.org if you’d like to come with!

PreCentral is reporting that Sprint updated their website with some new Pre specs.  We already knew most of this from Palm’s site, but we now know for certain that the Pre will do wired and bluetooth tethering, and everyone’s making a big deal that MMS is now confirmed.  If that means real honest-to-Christmas MMS and I can finally ditch Sprint’s crippled Picture Mail service, then this latest drop of information certainly is cause to celebrate.

Via MobileCrunch

As soon as I read on WebOS Arena that @whurley, @giovanni, and @dancrumb were organizing a worldwide Pre development invasion, I knew that San Diego had to be a part of it.  Even though we don’t know the launch date yet, over 60 cities have committed to host developer events one week after we’re able to get our hands on the phone that’s going to revolutionize the mobile cloud computing experience.

What’s a DevCamp?
We haven’t had many developer camps in San Diego, but they’re like a BarCamp centered around creating applications on a common platform or language.  Users just like you will lead sessions covering everything from basic functionality, differences between the Pre and existing Palm devices (and the iPhone!), brainstorming sessions, and lots of group hacking time.  From what we know about the Pre’s webOS so far, applications are written in super easy HTML and CSS, so just about anyone should be able to get up and running after an intro session to the webOS SDK.  But even if HTML ain’t your style, we’ll need people to come up with application ideas and help test the code other people create.  Palm will also be releasing an emulator, so you can still participate even if you can’t buy the hardware before the event.  If you’re a creative type and have been getting excited about the Pre, you need to sign up now!

Help wanted!
If you’re interested in throwing conventional organization out the window and helping find a venue and some sponsors, don’t forget to check that pretty little volunteer box on the registration page so I’ll know to get in touch with you.  If you’re interested in sponsoring, contact me and Giovanni Gallucci.

Watch this blog and the @preDevCamp twitter account for further information, and start spreading the word now that San Diego’s going to kick some webOS development ass sometime in the next five months!

–  @adora