Palm is accepting applications from developers to test-drive the SDK, said Leslie Letts, Palm representative. But she did not know how many developers actually have had access. "We've always said as we get closer to availability, we'd share more detains on when the SDK would be public," Letts said Tuesday.

But a couple of developers interviewed said they have been unable to get it.

"Basically, we started a Palm Pre users group down here, and unfortunately, Palm hasn't been very forthcoming in getting us a lot of details on where the SDK is going," said Charles Taylor, of the Southern California Palm preMongers user group.

"We need the SDK so we know what we have access to on the phone," such as database and GPS capabilities, Taylor said.