Palm Ares developer tool set moves to beta stage

Palm's Project Ares, a browser-based development tool set for Palm webOS applications, has moved to a public beta stage, a Palm representative said.

Applications can be developed for Palm's Pre and Pixi devices. Ares is “the first complete set of integrated mobile development tools hosted entirely in the browser that makes it even easier and faster to create Palm webOS apps,” a Palm representative said in an email.

“Like webOS, Project Ares embodies Palm's belief that the future of mobile will be built on the Web,” the representative said. “Project Ares aims to enable a next-generation mobile development workflow, in which developers move quickly and seamlessly from editing in a browser, to debugging on a device to selling applications in Palm's App Catalog or on the Web.”

Ares is available at this Web page, which requires an account registration.

A Palm official had revealed early this month that Ares was in an alpha stage. Ares was demonstrated at the Open Mobile Summit conference in San Francisco last month. Palm has no set date for general availability of Ares at this point.

Ares features a drag-and-drop interface builder, a code editor, a visual debugger, and source control integration. Other capabilities include drag-and-drop file upload and instant project upload and download for seamless desktop/cloud workflow, the company said. Applications can be previewed in a browser.

Ares has been tested for use on the following browsers: Safari 4.0 and higher-numbered releases, Chrome 3 and 4, and Firefox 3.5 and above. Officially, Ares will not work on the Internet Explorer browser.