Last week the latest WebOS update was pushed out to Palm devices, and much to the surprise to those eager to have a look under the hood, it contained a rather interesting novelty.

The surprise comes in the form of SDL support. SDL is an acronym for what Palm calls Simple DirectMedia Later, which is any open sources gateway library that gives developers a programming interface to the underlying graphics, audio and input device support. The graphics support is key; as it means that hardware accelerated graphics are reality.

In the end this means that the possibility for not only 3D gaming, but native application support, is now a possibility for developers to start working with. The news of such future support has been rumored, but the continued focus on cloud delivered applications has been the push by Palm. Now with SDL this really gives developers some serious options in developing for both WebOS devices that Palm has released so far.

Our sources also are telling us that Palm has some interesting announcements on tap for CES. One thing that will be sure to get a lot of attention is both a WebOS port of DOOM and Quake that have been already completed, which makes the discovery of the SDL more than just a proof of concept. Support is also included in 1.3.5 update that allows for the install and running of native Linux apps without having to hack them. This could prove to be quite a development for the Palm camp.