Palm has announced plans to offer new developer tools soon, including direct API access to a phone’s microphone and camera. That will make it possible to develop apps for recording audio and video.
Other new developer tools will include access to Palm’s media indexer, which should help with third party music and video applications. You’ll also see new security APIs, and a Bluetooth Serial Port profile which could add support for Bluetooth keybaords and other devices.
Pre Central has a roundup of news from Palm’s recent Developer Day, with more information about these and other features. End users really won’t notice most of these features, but hopefully you will notice some cool new apps that tack advantage of them late this year. The one thing that users will see is a new and improved App Catalog which will make it easier to sort through paid, free, new, and hot apps from different categories.
