Newest PhoneGap version brings better tools & new native platforms

Developers, developers, developers, developers! Today is a frabjous day.

Adobe has released PhoneGap 3.0, and it’s full of new features to make cross-platorm mobile development easier for y’all.

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Of particular interest are the better tools for platform-switching — you don’t even need the SDK! — and the new native platforms supported, including Windows Phone 8, BlackBerry 10, and iOS 6.

We’re still waiting on support for iOS 7 and Firefox OS; Adobe reps tell us those are coming “soon.” Results for “soon” may vary.

There’s also a new plugin architecture that lets you install and remove plugins automatically, making apps small and fast. Additionally, Adobe’s giving PhoneGap a couple new APIs for in-app browsing and globalization.

PhoneGap is just one of Adobe’s tools for making HTML, CSS, and JavaScript a bigger part of native mobile app development. The tools in PhoneGap are intended to generate functional, fast, and reliable apps that work across all mobile platforms and form factors.

Adobe, which is placing big bets on mobile web technologies, also has its line of Edge tools for responsive design.

As Jacob Surber, Adobe’s senior product manager for digital media, said in a recent phone chat with VentureBeat, “A responsive design has more than just fluid elements. … There are several great reasons to go native, and I don’t think responsive design is the answer to everything.

“But it does play into scenarios where I have existing content that I want people to access on a mobile device. As a web property, there may be a reason to have a standalone mobile app, but you still need a presence on the web. Filters, blend modes — those things aren’t available natively, and we want to support those evolutions as they happen.”