New in the App Catalog for 08 April 2010 | webOS Nation
 
 
 

New in the App Catalog for 08 April 2010 16

by Derek Kessler Fri, 09 Apr 2010 6:56 am EDT

App Catalog After running exceedingly hot for a few days here with new apps and updates, the pace slowed a bit yesterday. But not by a lot, as we still got a decent handful of new apps and at least one bucket full of updates. And there was some useful stuff in there, such as Torrent Remote for remotely controlling uTorrent, or MoBill for using Authorize.net to send bills to customers from your phone. And Richard Buckminster Fuller Quotes. Oh, wait. Sure, it’s one of four quotes apps from Brighthouse Labs that landed yesterday, but that we have these apps is a sign of the freedom that developers have been granted for the webOS App Catalog, unlike what our friends over at TiPb are witnessing. The great holy list of app freedom, listed after the break as usual.

New apps:

  • Mobile Holy Quran, $4.99, by Zoosware: The Holy Quran, optimized for webOS.
  • MoBill, Free, by MoJack: Bill your customers using Authorize.net, all data is stored server-side.
  • PopSci.com+ @0700, $1.29, by HJiT Consulting: Read the latest gadget, automobile, science, and technology news.
  • PreSabre, Free, by JDF Software: A lightsaber, on your phone. Tap to turn on and off, swing for accelerometer-triggered noisy goodness.
  • Rene Descartes Quotes, $1.99, by Brighthouse Labs: “I think, therefore I am.”
  • Richard Brinsley Sheridan Quotes, $1.99, by Brighthouse Labs: Quotes from the Irish-born playwright, poet, theater owner, and politician.
  • Richard Buckminster Fuller Quotes, $1.99, by Brighthouse Labs: Quotes from the American architect, author, designer, inventor, and futurist.
  • Richard M. Nixon Quotes, $1.99, by Brighthouse Labs: “I am not a crook.”
  • Torrent Remote, $2.95, by Blakeshome: Control the uTorrent BitTorrent client from your phone.
  • Trimet Tracker, Free, by Beagle Software: Create a list of the Portland metro bust stops that your frequent and get real-time arrival estimates for them.

Updated apps:

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16 Comments

Posted by shaneosullivan on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 7:38 am EDT

The sooner Palm builds vendor filtering into the App Catalog the better!

Posted by brendilon on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 8:14 am EDT

Even with Apple's near-fascist filters, Brighthouse still has 70+ pages of Apps in the Apple catalog.

Posted by sacherjj on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 8:54 am EDT

The problem to me is the Hottest Apps selection. Purely rating without consideration of number of ratings. Brighthouse and other have shills that rate almost everything they put in the catalog at 5 stars (which is against the agreement that they signed to be in the catalog, which forbids rating your own app.) Any App with one five star rating is most likely the developer.

Palm is in a tough spot. Everybody is number of apps, number of apps. Brighthouse and a few other crap app producers is pushing up the number of apps.

Posted by spacemanspork on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:45 am EDT

The hottest apps section SHOULD be the most downloaded apps for the week REGARDLESS of the rating. Even if something is crap, if it's "selling" like hotcakes, then I think it should be on the "hottest apps". Right now it's vice versa. There's so many bad apps there that cost money but are rated highly (by friends or the creator him/herself) but NO ONE downloads. And these will NEVER leave the hottest apps because no one is going to buy the crappy app and rate it badly.

My App Catalog Changes

My personal opinion is there needs to be an addition to the rating system. The stars should be colored. Gray = under 30 ratings (totally questionable rating), Blue = 31-100 ratings (probably accurate), Yellow = 100+ ratings (pretty established). Grays cannot show up on the "Hottest" and yellows are placed above blues.

Add a "this app did not install/run for me" rating. A percentage counter of this rating should be listed on the app. Ie if 10 people choose that rating out of 100 people that downloaded it, then it should say "10% failure to run". This is just cuz I find it funny when I see a great app have 5* after 5* until you hit a 0 or 1* because "I couldn't get it to install or run".

Add a change log accessible from the app catalog. I really would like to see what has changed when I get updates.

Posted by doublebear on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 10:50 am EDT

If you can't wait for it, Preware already has a patch that does just that. Just install the patch and you'll have an option in the catalog to fade out any vendors you want.

Posted by Laxidasical on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 8:24 am EDT

Thanks for mentioning MoBill! *grin*

Posted by nsabournemouth on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 8:42 am EDT

Palm need to get the app store sorted out rather quick. What a load of rubbish....again.

Posted by eo19 on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 8:50 am EDT

Do people actually download those quote apps? Lame.

Posted by sacherjj on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 8:55 am EDT

At least one person does for all of them. And rates them all 5 stars. They must be GREAT! (How do you do the rolled eyes in the article comments?)

Posted by x_madhatter_x on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 8:57 am EDT

they just need to make a wishlist so you can add whatever apps you want to your list or make the app catalog more interactive so you can hide or delete the garbage apps. I dont need another filter I need to get rid of the garbage.

Posted by Major Payne on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 8:58 am EDT

Portland metro bust stops??

Are these areas that you know you can get busted for something or is it s place to ogle women?

Posted by sacherjj on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 9:13 am EDT

Train maps, schedules, bus stops, etc. These are apps that are all over the Apple App Store and are actually one attractor for city folk to the platform. Although, just schedules can be pulled from most decent public transit cities from the web site.

Posted by Phenoum on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 11:01 am EDT

Think you missed the 'bust' line there - Typo in the article makes me want to find these stops as well :)

Posted by Cringer on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 9:15 am EDT

He is in the Rs, only 8 letters left in the alphabet.
:)

Posted by znif57finz on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 9:31 am EDT

But when he reaches "Z" will he start translating in other languages? Probably too much work. I think he prefers the cut/ paste method of app design.

Posted by nadrojl on Fri, 09 Apr 2010 9:38 am EDT

Is anyone else having issues download from the app catalog? I try updating apps or downloading new ones, and nothing happens. It just sits there without downloading. Been happening ever since the 1.4.1 update...