Author: Derek Kessler

Given that yesterday was the first day of the Hot Apps competition, we saw a big burst of new apps on the scene early early yesterday morning. So early, in fact, that they were included in our App Catalog round-up for the last day of January instead of the first day of this month. Thus, it seems that yesterday ended up as a “light” day in the App Catalog, but really his is all that was posted after o-dark-thirty by the apparent insomniacs at Palm. That, or the App Catalog’s getting all screwy again. Either way, the complete list follows.

New apps:

• Dough, $2.99, by Code Beyond: Manage your financial accounts and track your budget.
• Slacker Radio, Free, by Slacker: Listen to more than 120 professionally programmed music stations or create your own.
• Spoof-A-Call, $0.99, by Lane One Apps: Trigger a fake call to extricate yourself from that less-than-awesome situation.

Updated apps:

• Guitarist’s Reference Free Guitar Tuner, Free: New version with tuner
• Guitarist’s Reference Pro & Guitar Tuner, $2.99: New version with tuner
• MoreStocks Trial, Free
• MoreStocks, $3.99
• Tilt Origami, $1.99
• Tire Size Calc 2.0, Free
• Translator, Free

Another celebrity-studded awards show means that Palm was again out in force behind the scenes rubbing elbows with the stars. And slapping the Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus into their hands. This time it was the 52nd Annual Grammy Awards, celebrating the best in popular music. The folks at Palm felt like rubbing it in that they got to meet music legends, so they posted 28 pictures of just that on ye olde Facebook.

So just who stopped by the Palm gift lounge? There’s the titular George Clinton, T-Pain, Randy Jackson, Greg Grungberg, Jamie Foxx, Lionel Richie, Kate Voegele, and Justin Bieber – just to name a few. Palm’s got the whole album up over on Facebook.

Developers, start your engines! Palm’s Hot Apps program begins today, and there’s $1 million on the table just waiting for you. Running from February 1, 2010 to May 31, 2010, Hot Apps will award cash prizes to the developers with the most webOS app downloads during that period. Here’s how that one million dollars breaks down:

• #1 most downloaded free app: $100,000
• #1 highest revenue paid app: $100,000
• #2 – #21 most downloaded paid apps: $10,000 each
• #2 – #21 most downloaded free apps: $10,000 each
• #22 – #221 most downloaded paid apps: $1,000 each
• #22 – #221 most downloaded free apps: $1,000 each

So all you’ve got to do is be in the top 221 apps to be prize worthy. With cold hard cash on the line, here’s hoping we see some really amazing apps in the next 120 days!

Clarification: There are two sets of prizes, free and paid. The top 221 in both categories will be eligible for the awards.

Okay, now I’m certain they’re doing this on purpose. That’s two days in a row with apps appearing under older. Is something up at Palm HQ? Are they getting ready for something big cometh this month, or are we just looking at some sort of wacky mix up with the app servers? I don’t know, but I do know that we got enough apps yesterday (and apparently the lost days before) to bring the App Catalog total to 1346. Not too shabby, eh? Check it all out after the break.

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The folks at Palm are screwing with my head, I swear. I open up the App Catalog this morning to see what’s new, and behold, there is new stuff listed under older. Again. I know this stuff wasn’t there yesterday, and being under older means it certainly wasn’t there night. No, these are apps from a parallel dimension. It’s the only plausible explanation. The thought had crossed my mind that maybe it was a glitch on Palm’s servers, but then I realized that the alternate dimension theory made much more sense. Seeing as this oddness is still comprised of new apps, it’s all listed after the time vortex-free break.

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EDIT: As the commenters have so astutely pointed out, I apparently need to get my eyes checked again. That’s an HTC Touch Dual. Mea culpa.

While more and more TV shows are learning that its simply easier to use the apps that come on smartphones, there are still some that insist on making a custom interface to accomplish simple tasks, like taking a picture. Leverage happens to be one of those shows, making fancy with the taking of pictures instead of just using the camera app that comes on the Palm Pre. But hey, making the phone look fancier than it is? Sure, that’s cool too.

Thanks to Mvsscooby for the tip! 

There’s been some confusion as of late about how Flash will be coming to webOS and to which devices. It all pretty much stems from Jon Rubinstein’s announcement at CES about the very same thing, where he said that Flash would be available to “all Pre phones.” Note the lack of “Pixi” in that statement. Does this mean that Flash won’t be coming to the Pixi at all?

Flash 10.1 will not come built into webOS 1.4. The new version of webOS will come with support for the Flash plug-in, which will be available for free from the App Catalog. Additionally, it’s going to be Adobe’s call as to when the Flash plug-in makes its way to the App Catalog.

Of course, we all are looking forward to full video recording and editing on the Pre and Pixi. Palm has also promised battery and speed enhancements, but those sorts of things tend to incremental, so don’t expect the world there.

On top of the above, we also have this posting in Sprint’s forums via QuarlesLT in our own forums detailing just a little bit more about webOS 1.4:

Get even more out of your Palm Pre and Pixi, Palm webOS 1.4 update is on the horizon.
I wanted to let everyone know that we’re planning to have an update to your Palm Pre and Palm Pixi later this quarter. We’ll be updating to Palm webOS 1.4. A few of the key updates include:

• Video Capture functionality with editing capability
• Adobe Flash Player 10 (Palm Pre only)
  
• Full Phonebook transfer capabilities
  
• Calendar Enhancements
  
• Messaging Enhancements
  

These are just a few of the high-lights with much more detail to come. I’m sure there will be a lot of questions around timing and details of the update and I won’t be able to share any more than what is listed above but we wanted to let our Community know it was coming.

So 1.4 is looking like the .5 update over 1.3.5.1 that is really is: some nice enhancements here and there, but it we don’t expect revolutionary changes. 

Sometimes there are simply light days in the App Catalog. We suppose it makes up for the days that come with baked in awesome. At the very least we have one developer that has released a free version of a much-maligned type of app, presumably to judge the kind of interest such an app would generate if freely available instead of being a paid app. So far, the download count’s not looking so good for… well, lets see if you can guess which I’m talking about.

New apps:

• Awesome Sayings for Free, Free, by Dijit: “Awesome” sayings for you phone’s wallpaper.
• Currency Converter, $4.99, by Prolog: Convert 150 currencies with up-to-date conversion rates.
• Outline Tracker Free, Free, by Hominid Software: Trial version of Outline Tracker, limited to 50 list items.
• Tire Size Calc 2.0, Free, by Spyder Speak: Calculate your speedometer differential and clearance change when putting on differently sized tires.
• World Time Pro, $2.99, by Victory Link USA: Manage multiple lists of city times with alarms and maps.

Updated apps:

• Connect 4, $4.99
• gDial Pro, Free
• gpsDashboard Free, Free
• Visual Voicemail, Free

While owners of the Palm Pre in Europe are still languishing with a few hundred apps (if that many) of the free variety, they can at least take heart that their carrier hasn’t abandoned them. As noted by teltarif.de, O2 is actually behind the creation of at least four German-language webOS apps: Mobile eBay, Xing, N24, and FriendScout24. Xing is a business social networking site similar to LinkedIn and popular in Germany, FriendScout24 is Germany’s top dating website, and N24 is a German news channel (News 24, eh). Mobile eBay, as you’ve likely deduced from its clever title, is eBay Germany formatted for your webOS phone. While Europe won’t be getting paid applications until March, webOS users in Germany can at least take heart that their carrier is still looking out for them.

Thanks to Hans for the tip!

We’ve all wondered what Palm would be talking about in March when they present at the Game Developers Conference, but now we’re getting a better idea. We have confirmed with Palm that the clearly awesome webOS Plug-in Development Kit will be released as a public beta in March. Putting two and two together, we wouldn’t be at all surprised to see the PDK beta announced at GDC. In fact, we’d be surprised if it wasn’t (assuming it’s not unveiled beforehand). The full 1.0 release for the PDK is expected at some point later in 2010.

We’ve heard it time and time again in the comments and forums: “Why doesn’t Palm incorporate these patches into webOS?” We get it, we dig patches as much as you do. It’s cool stuff, there’s no getting around that indisputable fact. With more and more patches coming out every week, the question only becomes a louder call – especially when the patch merely turns on something that’s already there in webOS (looking at you landscape email and LED notifications).

Even better: WebOS Internals dictates that the patches they help distribute have a software license that makes it easy and legal for Palm to adopt.

While we’re sure there’s some sort of complicated answer involving testing, compatibility, and the like, with more than 200 patches available from WebOS Internals, there’s also the question of what patches should Palm incorporate if they were to chose to do so. With that in mind, we think it’s megapoll time, and we’ve picked out thirty popular patches for your multiple-choice (up to five) voting pleasure.

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Sure, Apple and President Obama may have stolen the headlines for the day, but that doesn’t mean there was nothing important happening in the world of webOS today. In fact there was important stuff, including but not limited to the lack of an iPhone coming to Verizon. Truly, the important stuff is that which will help to sustain the platform through the coming years, and that important stuff is going to be apps. Thankfully, Palm and the growing legions of webOS developers are bringing the apps in full force, with several exciting apps landing recently – including a handful of new 3D games (does it show that we’re still excited about the PDK?). We’ve got it all in the usual list, in its usual spot after the break.

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Everybody and their mother thought that a Verizon iPhone announcement was a sure thing for Wednesday’s Jobsnote. While the magical and revolutionary (Steve Jobs’ words, not ours) iPad was unveiled to an overhyped public, the iPhone for Big Red was nowhere to be seen, not even as one of Jobs’ famous “Oh, one more thing” moments.

Judging by the depressed price of Palm’s stock that morning, investors seemed to feel the same way, pushing Palm’s stock down nearly 3% by the time Jobs took the stage. But by the time the iPad presentation was wrapping up, investors had come to see that Apple’s relationship with AT&T was still strong. The iPad was going to be available with pre-paid data service from AT&T, and using 3G frequencies not available on T-Mobile, the only other GSM carrier in the United States. That alone was enough to trigger a rally in shares of PALM. The stock gained 11% from the day’s low to peak at $11.98 a share, though it eventually settled down at $11.70 by the close of the market. That was a 4.7% gain from the open and a rally of close to 8% from the low of $10.75. For what its worth, Apple’s stock was up a hair under 1% for the day, but it only trended into positive territory after pricing for the couldn’t-possibly-live-up-to-the-hype iPad was revealed.

With neither the iPad nor the iPhone coming to Verizon (or any other US carrier besides AT&T), Palm’s positioning on Verizon with the Pre Plus and Pixi Plus appears to be secure for now. That is, until the Nexus One arrives.

Gameloft sure isn’t taking any time off when it comes to porting games to webOS with that fancy schmancy PDK. Today landed a 3D game category that many have clamored for since PDK games first arrived: the first person shooter. And it comes in the form of a game that has proven to be quite popular on the iPhone platform. It’s Gameloft’s Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes. Based in WWII, you play a soldier in the United States Army’s 101st Airborne Division and fight your way through Africa and Europe. The game isn’t a straightforward FPS, as you also get full use of a variety of vehicles, including the ultimate man machine – the tank. Interested in aiding in the liberation of a digital Europe? Hit up the App Catalog now, where Brothers in Arms: Hour of Heroes is available for just $4.99.

Thanks to sketch42 for the tip!

So, you want to know if the Pre and Pre Plus can really handle 3D gaming with aplomb, but don’t feel like forking over the cash to find out for sure? Gameloft has an answer for you, and it comes in the form of a demo version of the excellent racing game Asphalt 5. Available for free from the App Catalog, Asphalt 5 Free gives you a few minutes of play on a full functional track. Weighing in at nearly 66 MB, you can be sure you’re getting a full experience, though it is still limited to a few minutes with no save functionality. And of course, if you like what you see, Asphalt 5 Free comes with a link straight to the App Catalog where you can part with $6.99 (plus applicable taxes) for the full game.

While we understand the drive to throw in freebies to entice a customer to buy a product, we as the customer generally prefer that the freebie be somehow useful to the product I am looking to purchase. Case-in-point, Wal-Mart Wireless’s online site (powered by LetsTalk) is giving out free 4GB microSD cards from Kingston with select Sprint phone purchases, including the Samsung Instinct S30, HTC Hero, Palm Centro, Samsung Moment, and the Palm Pre and Pixi. Wait, that’s not right…

In other news, Verizon’s website also has some cleaning up to do, as Hebrew language blog Palm Preacher noticed. Verizon’s fancy try-it-out emulator for the Pre Plus lists the following tech specs: 7630 MB ROM/256 MB RAM. If you’ve been following the news about the Pre Plus at all, you’ll noticed that those numbers are exactly half of what they should be, in fact they’re the specifications of the regular Pre, not the double plus good Pre Plus. At least some other parts of the Verizon website list the Pre Plus with the proper storage and memory. Now if only Verizon would actually show off the Pre Plus on their website…

Thanks to Darrell and avnera for the tips!

Today we introduce you to the new category of app you’re going to love to hate in these posts. Brighthouse Labs’ sports apps are still around (four new Baseball Fans apps landed yesterday), but developer EmJa Interactive is exploiting to subcategorizeable (err…) app categories to full benefit: cheat codes broken down by individual console and the lyrics app. While we fully admit that separating cheat codes by console makes perfect sense, making an individual app for the lyrics of a single artist or group we can see leading to the irritating proliferation that led to shouts for the banning of some other developers (and the subsequent reasoned response from Palm). How many lyrics apps did we get yesterday? Eight. At least they’re names I recognized – check it all out after the break.

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Both Verizon and AT&T have recently dropped the price of their unlimited voice plans from $100 to $70 a month. While we (we being the tech media) generally assumed that the price cuts were an attempt to lure more customers. We tend to forget a few days after their conference calls that the #1 and #2 US cellular networks are having no trouble picking up and retaining new customers, even with their rates considerably higher than #3 Sprint and #4 T-Mobile (T-Mobile is at least still gaining subscribers, unlike Sprint). So why the price cuts?

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Well that’s more like it. Verizon launch day not only brought us two new phones and a much larger new carrier, it also brought us plenty of apps throughout the day. And unlike the apps that came late Sunday night, these came all through the day on Monday and mixed fun with irreverent with impressive with useful. With the obligatory smattering of “Why?” thrown in for good measure. Mostly the answer is “Because we could,” and really, is there any better reason than that? While you ponder that little nugget, I’ll invite you to jump past the break, where the new apps (including the impressive Assassin’s Creed) and updated apps alike are all listed.

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We’ve seen the Palm Pre pop up in Bones before, but now we get a nice clean shot that we didn’t the last time. While out investigating aliens and murder and similar things, Dr. Brennan (Emily Deschanel) places a call back to the office with her Pre. Why it makes an old-school speed dial sound is beyond us… Either way, video after the break.

Thanks to Khalid for the tip!

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