New in the App Catalog for 16 October 2009 61
by Derek Kessler
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 7:05 pm EDT
Fri, 16 Oct 2009 7:05 pm EDT 
Normally we save this for the morning after, but Palm saw fit to bless us mere mortals with a veritable cornucopia of apps today, bringing nearly two dozen new paid apps into the Catalog. Here’s what landed:
- ActiveCard, $4.99, by forwebOS.com: Customizable app launcher, quick contact list, calendar viewer, news reader, clock, and more. That “agenda” screen you’ve been waiting for.
- Brick, $0.99, by Ovlite: Bust away bricks with your paddle and ball.
- Chameleon, $0.99, by Ryan Steffer Technologies: Change your wallpaper base on your location.
- ColorClip, $0.99, by mathslice: Clear the board of marbles by selecting groups of the same color.
- Dealert, $1.99, by Kevin Foreman: Add a product you want to the list and Dealert will automatically check for price drops.
- dkGoogleVoice, $2.99, by d0lph1nK1ng Software: Integrated Google Voice client. Congratulations to Homebrew Graduate d0lph1nK1ng!
- ELLE Astrology, $2.99, by Skava: Grab your horoscope and self-help advice.
- FMCaltrain, $2.99, by FiveMicro, LLC: Check the Caltrain schedule, plan your trips, and more.
- Golf Caddie, $9.99, by DTW Consulting: GPS-enabled golfing assistant and score tracker.
- Hebrew Calendar, $2.99, by Avner Arbel: Keep track of everything going on inside the Jewish calendar.
- I’m Here, $0.99, by Ken Torimaru: Send your location and map link to friends with a quick message (SMS, MMS, and Email).
- LaunchPoint Speed Dial, $0.99, by worthwhileTech: Add pop-up contacts with phone, email, and SMS abilities to the launcher. Congrats to Homebrew Graduate worthb!
- Peg IQ, $0.99, by Engine Equals Car: The classic triangular peg game, can you get it down to just one peg?
- Phone Home, $0.99, by GeezerNetwork: Pick a phone number for quick one-tap dialing.
- PopBlocks, $0.99, by nasprex: Tap groups of matching blocks to clear the screen and win.
- ptHealth, $4.99, by portaTracker.com: Track a log of your health, including weight, blood pressure, and more.
- Screamager, $0.99, by i-marco: Blast a marquee message across the room like an old-fashioned LED light board. Congrats to Homebrew Graduate TheMarco!
- Sudoku Classic, $2.99, by Skava: The classic version of the addictive game.
- Tank Tracker, $1.99, by Epic North: Track and chart the fuel use and mileage of multiple vehicles.
- The Surprise, $0.99, by Wingedchariot: The first children’s picturebook for webOS.
- Unit Converter, $0.99, by Ovlite: Quick and easy unit conversions.
61 Comments
Nice to see explosions like this from Palm, hope the trend continues!
I'm really missing Switcharoo (random wallpaper switcher). Please Palm, hurry up and approve this one.
First app I checked was Switcharoo. My Pre is amazingly boring without it.
some of this shit is a rip off
lol
I wonder why I haven't seen any free trials for paid apps.I'm used to trying before I buy any software. Is this due to some limitation of webos?
I've heard it has something to do with the idea that palm can't keep users from just deleting the free trail and down loading a new one every time the trial runs out.
I agree, I would love to be able to try it before I buy it. Thus why Lite versions seem to be the answer for now.
While I'm delighted to see the apps rolling out, I am not going to buy something without trying it first. Trialware was common, even the norm, I'd dare say, on the classic Palm OS. It needs to be available here, too.
Baby steps, though. We'll likely get there. In the mean time, glad to see the apps.
Will Classic 2.0 give you an additional 10-day trial if you delete and reinstall it? And another 10 days if you do that again?
Maybe it's an app thing, not Palm's...
all the prices seem pretty low to me only a couple of high ones. i like to read the reviews before i write them off as being a rip off.
well, we're gettin that filler we were lookin for, eh? I guess some of these will have some users, but none of em seem to be the kinda thing I'd use to show the phone off.
yeah i want my phone to be like a multi tooled pocket knife. lots of things that are useful and ill need. a few games never hurt either i guess.
LaunchPoint has been amazingly useful. I'm glad more people will be able to discover it now.
thats the one i have been checking out. your review is all i need, im buying.
any news on paid applications coming to canada?
any news on paid applications coming to canada?
any news on paid applications coming to canada?
double post FTL.
Phone Home for $0.99?
Isn't that what speed dial is for? Oh and that actually comes with the phone.
Is it just me or are some of apps -central graduates or otherwise- way over priced for their functionality/aesthetic appeal?
I'm not knocking hard work, I'm just saying is all.
Is It just me or are the majority of these apps just more of the apps we already had before (we had two Hebrew apps, a ton of GPS related ones, etc. etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.) Except now we are supposed to pay for them. What is the point of paid apps if they are the same as free ones but with a price tag?
Anyone else fell similar?
I think that most of the developers use the precentral homebrew distribution during the development cycle...so that testers can give feedback and such. Once they get to a point where the app is ready and Palm accepts, most of them pull it from the homebrew or make it a closed beta.
Yeah we've seen these apps before, but look at how many Fart Apps we're developed for the iPhone!? I think, that the market will be over run with all sorts of similar apps but what will make one sell better, stand out more is the art and the ascetics of the app.
Enough with the fart app comments .. LOL
iTunes lists 198 apps with 'fart' in the title -- that includes lite and paid versions. 198 apps represents .002% of the 85,000 iTune/iPhone apps.
I know of one fart app for Palm Pre (maybe not yet in the Palm app store). If the Palm app store held 200 apps, that's .005%.
Apple's app store has some catching up to do in order to be at parity (percentage wise) with the Pre where fart apps are concerned.
Yeah. I'll have to admit the quality of apps is way way below what i expected. I think i expected more apps tied to websites or major commercial properties. i have a sneaky suspicion that what we are seeing is the best of what they have. That is they aren't holding back the good ones.
I purchased ActiveCard, it needs some updates. I don't think it is worth the 4.99 price tag just yet
I am kinda interested in that chameleon app since I drive a lot. Could be fun.
Activecard needs a trial, it looks interesting, but it's hard to tell if it'll work for me just based on the description.
Unfortunately, the Pre has no support for in-app upgrades like the iPhone recently got, so that developers wouldn't need to maintain multiple versions.
(And I normally hate comparing to the iPhone, but this is one thing that would be a huge benefit to developers and users).
I was about to release preview here on Precentral, but Palm was faster. I had absolutely no idea it's on App Catalog until now.
ActiveCard is exactly like its says "card" I downloaded it..its ok but I wish I get my money back it would be worth $4.99 if you could make it your home screen!! LaunchPoint is worth downloading....if you could add the launchers 2 the home screen as widgets.
+1
Is there any chance you could group the apps even when there aren't as many as there are this time. For instance i don't care about games and don't want to waste my time trying to sift out that crap.
There just aren't enough games where you have to poke colored dots or squares.
This was hilarious. That is all.
i came to say the same thing.
so tired of seeing variations on this game.
come on Japanese apps!!!
I am a Professional Dance instructor. I'd love to see an app like BEER 101 For dancing, accompanied with videos. Tired of games.
gotta ck out launchpoint! Installed and its great!
not a single free app in that list.
here here for launchpoint! awesome app
I miss the days of Palm OS when almost every paid app has a 30 day trial period.
hm, why can't i find those apps in the store?
Can someone help pls?
I'm so sick of almost none of the apps being free! I love loading my phone with pointless apps (and useful ones), but I absolutely refuse to consider almost any app if the developer wants $5.00 for it. That's just bull. I realize they have to pay a fee to submit it, but really, I think there is maybe 1 or two apps that I MAY be willing to pay for... but I haven't yet.
In short, developers, stop being so damn cheap! I'm all for rewarding hard work, but this is outrageous.
I'm sorry swimmer, but I think the developers would think that it is you who is being "cheap".
I am all for the idea of a trial/demo app, but if the functionality of the app is something that you want, I certainly do not think $5 is outrageous for an app. After all, people buy coffee all the time for that much, and an app is something that you will use a lot longer than that caffeine.
I think you, and a lot of the others, are having a problem with the economics of scale. I have seen many responses on here about a "million dollar" app. They argue that at $5, if 200,000 people download it, the developer will make $1M -- and that the app as a whole is not worth that much, therefore they think the price should be lower.
You have to look at this solely from the perspective of yourself. If $5 is too much, then simply don't buy it.
I'm still waiting for a paid app that syncs my contacts, calendar, tasks, and memos and doesn't cost $30. I refuse to pay $30 for pocket mirror. I'd rather just re-enter the people that call me most frequently and manually enter calendar events until a good sync app crops up
+1
yet another bunch of useless apps. c'mon palm don't let us down! where are the functional, awesome apps we've been waiting for??
Chameleon is a great concept.
How about expand it to location and time based reminder or phone setting, for example:
Reminder for things to buy when you are in grocery store. Reminder to buy stamps if you pass by post office.
Silent the phone when at home between 11pm to 7 am.
yes, something like the 'Locale' app on Android.
Ahh Palm, thank you, it's finally nice to see the flood of apps palm promised. Of course, there is the shovel ware, but.. it's a fact of life. Now if they could only get more commercial apps.
I'll say this again....no one seems to have a solid grasp on how long it takes to develop the types of apps they are expecting. Please consider that major corporations do not move as fast as the individual developers. The WebOS platform needs more market share before they become interested in developing for it and they are waiting to see how Palm executes this new product. The Pre is slowly going global. I'm excited for the future of the platform as it gets into the hands of our international friends and companies. So many linux developers out there globally! 5 months in, WebOS is still in its infancy. Patience friends. Enjoy the journey and you'll look back a year later and talk about the early days and how you were all a part of it. :o)
I do agree that some of the apps are not what some of us want, but at least we are getting apps. The Pre is now in Germany, and the UK. I agree with lowzlegend, we have to give it some time. "The Pre is still an infant" I mean a month and a half ago, all I was reading here was how palm needs to release more apps, they need to release paid apps. Well they are doing so. Don't get me wrong I think Palm has dropped the ball on basic functions that should have been released with the Pre that still arent being addressed (Forwarding of text and picture mail, video recording, visual voicemail to name a few). But we are geting apps and Pre is now available across the Pond. Lets support the developers so they can at least eat. Commercial apps are going to be slow coming and dare I say, expensive. So take the bitter with the semi-sweet. Just my opinion.
I agree with most of the comments , I don't mind paying 5 dollars for an app as along it makes my life easier, games are fun but I would like to see more productive app. For example an app to keep my budget, calories intake, dictionary, spelling,price scanner etc ....
I agree with most of the comments , I don't mind paying 5 dollars for an app as along it makes my life easier, games are fun but I would like to see more productive app. For example an app to keep my budget, calories intake, dictionary, spelling,price scanner etc ....
+1 for a price/barcode scanner. Maybe one like I've seen elsewhere that scans product barcodes and looks them up on Amazon.
I purchased LaunchPoint Speed Dial. I used it as a HB, and I didn't have to buy it (he didn't disable the HB), but I chose to support the developer in the app catalog venue so I could review it. (It's cheap.) I don't see anything else I want from this batch. I was looking at ActiveCard, but fortunately I saved $5 by waiting for others to waste their money and critique it.
I'm still waiting for the trademarked games (Scrabble, Chuzzle, etc) that populated my Treos for years. I expect to pay real money for those, but you get what you pay for (as many of the current games demonstrate).
LaunchPoint Speed Dial is awesome. I hope they add an "all" button next to email popup like the phone popup does.
I have the app limit patch installed and I still had a problem downloading from the app cataglog. It would come up with an error stating the "app catalog is currently unavailable try back later". I uninstalled some stuff and it then worked.
To hell with Palm and their unwillingness to bring paid apps to Canada or even speak of the reason why they won't! Absolutely ridiculous behaviour. If you are going to have a phone released around the world, at least put some half-assed effort into satisfying your customers AND developers by expanding their potential market.
There is absolutely no reason to not accept payments from Canada. We have credit cards, our currency is almost on par, and Palm CAN identify between Bell and Sprint users (thereby allowing developers to submit two prices). Get ON it, or at least say something about it!
Honestly, to make it even easier, just keep the prices in U.S. Dollars. I mean $0.99 US is what? $1.10 in Canada? Maybe?
Geee sure wish there were some currency converter apps....LOL
Unfortunately it takes a bit of setup to deal with international commerce. It's not as simple as one may think. That being said, I'm eager for Palm to get this implemented quickly. The feedback I've gotten (like all feedback) is "it's coming." :-|
I agree with most of the comments... I have been using preware, homebrew, and all that stuff.. I am not paying $5 for an app. I can't try or preview even.. The active card is the same as the sample active home screen, which was not very well executed.. great idea, but poor qualities.. I figured palm would have made this developer take all the feedback we got gave them to fix app & make it even better, which with the reviews did not happen.. let alone charge $5, NO WAY!!!!
***also I agree get some useful apps on here.. barcode is just one example out of an extremely long list!!!