New in the App Catalog for 23 February 2010 35
by Derek Kessler Wed, 24 Feb 2010 9:39 am EST
Yesterday brought some beefy new apps to the App Catalog. While we got the standard smattering of updates and cruft apps, there are some gems in there that I feel obligated to point out. First there’s the popular Gameloft game Real Soccer 2010, and a 3D fantasy adventure in Castle of Magic, also from Gameloft. But the real heavyweights here are Grooveshark and Epocrates. You all know Epocrates as the gold standard of medical reference apps, and Grooveshark is a sweet service that lets you upload your music to the cloud and listen to your entire library from anywhere you have an internet connection. Of course, there’s plenty more, and it’s all after the break.
New apps:
- AdExpress, Free, by CashYourAds.com: View local advertisements with the click of a button.
- Castle of Magic, $4.99, by Gameloft: Race to save your friend from the clutches of the evil Nefastax in this 3D fantasy adventure.
- Epocrates, Free, by Epocrates: The premiere medical reference database.
- Facebook Chat, $1.99, by Game Time For All: Hook into Facebook Chat from your phone.
- Grooveshark, Free, by Grooveshark: Listen to your music from anywhere.
- Lyndon B. Johnson Quotes, $1.99, by Brighthouse Labs: “Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.”
- Mae West Quotes, $1.99, by Brighthouse Labs: Quotes from the late American actress and scribe.
- Mao Tse-Tung Quotes, $1.99, by Brighthouse Labs: “The people, and the people alone, are the motive force in the making of world history.”
- MarineCast, $5.99, by InforBridge: Get current nautical conditions include forecasts, graphs, radar maps, and tide predictions.
- Martin Luther Quotes, $1.99, by Brighthouse Labs: “All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired.”
- Nine Buttons, Free, by Michael Goetz: Simon Says - but with nine buttons instead of a paltry four.
- Real Soccer 2010, $6.99, by Gameloft: Live the soccer season from start to finish with 8 leagues and 245 teams populated by real players in this 3D game.
- Spanish Lesson 1 to 10 - iCaramba, $16.99, by Avataris Media: Take yourself from “No hablo” to “¡Si hablo Español!”
- Ten Trends, $0.99, by Kuhlfire: Visual represetation of what’s currently trending on Twitter.
- The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, $0.99, by Appible: Join Ichabod Crane in Washington Irving’s classic tale.
- The Time Machine, $0.99, by Appible: Read H. G. Wells’ classic science fiction novel.
Updated apps:
- AccuRadio, Free
- Arnold Says..., Free
- Benny The Boulder, $1.00
- Block Breaker Lite, Free
- Block Breaker, $1.99
- Celebrity Tweets, $0.99
- Converter, $1.50
- Countdown, $1.99
- Daily Photo, Free
- Elements, $0.99
- Fake A Call, $2.99
- Flickr Addict Lite, Free
- Flickr Addict, $1.99
- iUS States Atlas, Free
- JigJumble, $1.97
- jVault, $3.99
- KeepScore Free, Free
- LCD Power Racer, Free
- Mazer, Free
- MobiPet, $2.99
- Moo, Free
- MoreStocks, $3.99
- Parafoil, $1.99
- pReader, Free
- Shopping Manager, $1.49
- SmartRunner, Free
- SpellWell, $1.99
- T-Minus, $0.99
- Talladega Nights, $0.99
- Tire Size Calc 2.0, Free
- TouchConnect, Free
- Tri-Match, $2.99
- Uber Calc, $0.99
- World Time Lite, Free
- World Time Pro, $2.99
35 Comments
Gameloft just keeps pumping them out.
Epocrates is a very nice addition.
1.4 can't come soon enough. I picture a tool that converts IPhone apps with a push of the button, and Gameloft already has it. That would be very Palm...and would spark another 2009 ITunes like battle. Aside from the question of whether it's even possible, it would raise some interesting legal questions. I do not develop for Iphone, but it would be interesting to see the agreement. If there is a port tool, can an app be sold on another platform? Is it a new app?
I'd think that applications are the intellectual property of the developer and can be ported over to any system that can handle them. If an operating system owner (Palm, Apple, RIM, etc) bought the application and incorporated it in the base of the system, then that might be different. But most applications work on more than one system (Mac, PC and sometimes Linux) without major proprietary headaches.
nb
I don't think Apple would be able to control if a developer wants to put their game on another platform. With the pdk it's all up to the developer if they want it to be compatible with both phones not the customer picking which iphone games they want on the pre.
For the Block Breaker game update, I added the ability to tilt the phone to control the paddle.
But unfortunately, I forgot that most people are still used to using their fingers. Just go to Preferences and turn off the 'Use Tilt' feature to use your finger again. I'm going to rush home and fix this, but Palm won't be able to publish it until Monday.
Very sorry about this!!
I think the tilt function is so much better than sliding your finger on the screen. I think making it the default control scheme was the right thing to do. Just my 2 cents...
Thanks for the 0.02! That's more than I normally make off a free application!
My mistake is not turning off orientation updates if the finger is down. Also didn't realize that many users are not familiar with the Preference screen of most applications.
My star reviews are falling fast! O_o Trying to get the word out ASAP!
Yeah I just noticed the bad reviews. It's amazing that people don't even think to look for a Preferences screen before freaking out about the new control scheme. But that's reality unfortunately. You might consider adding a "Preferences" button on your main screen.
What I do in my app to inform people of changes is to display a one-time changelog screen when they first boot up the app after an update. It lists all of the updates (sorted by order of importance). It'll be up to the people to decide whether they want to read about the changes or not, but at least I've presented it to them.
Is there sound or just my pre doesn't have it?
There is sound, just make sure you turn it on in the Preference screen. I'm having to use system sounds until a future Palm update fixes the memory problems with it.
I'm going to replace the Instructions button with Preferences on the next update to alleviate these types of problems. Who needs instructions on how to play a pong type game anyway!
Thanks for quick reply.Do you have a twitter account,So I can follow along?
We do! It's "InvasiveBamboo". We haven't updated it in a little while, but thanks to this problem, we probably are going to use it more and more.
Big lesson here for developers: Many users, perhaps even most users, don't know webOS has a menu system and therefore any action that requires access to the menus isn't going to happen.
For my JigJumble application, in addition to the menu option, I placed a small iconic 'preferences' button at the bottom of the top level screen, and that seems to be helping users get into preferences to change puzzle modes and degree of difficulty.
Excellent point and well said. I can't tell you how many of my negative reviews are only because the users don't know that there is a preference screen on each of my applications.
You can clearly see the iconic button here:
http://www.precentral.net/app-gallery/app-catalog/jigjumble
email me if you'd like the image
Nicely done! I have Axialis Icon Editor, only take me a second to re-create it.
Thanks!
Grooveshark is so awesome...I'm so stoked it came out before my road trip to Hilton Head at the end of March. to me..this is better then flash =)
Too bad you have to pay for it after 50 songs or 2 weeks. I was excited until I saw this. Now I hope flash comes so I can use the website version for free.
Ahhh i would honestly rather wait for 1.4 to go to Hilton Head right now, I love that place!
Palm were smart when they came up with the PDK.
I'm pretty sure its relatively easy and routine for Gameloft to port their games to webOS using the PDK, which allows for C/C++ Code, same code iPhone native applications use. As well as the PowerVR GPU being virtually the same almost zero optimization is needed, apart from taking into account smaller screen and mapping controls.
I'm pretty sure this applies to nearly all iPhone apps, and the majority could be ported pretty easily, this is great for the iPhone developer, as their apps can be quickly ported whilst minimising dev cost, as well as the advantage of a less competitive app ecosystem which is the App Catalog with its meager 1500 Apps as opposed to 140,000 which is the App store.
I'd expect a flood of iPhone apps soon after the PDK *Hopefully*. It makes sense, getting your application to sell in the App store is more hit and miss and luck, what with the no. of apps and Apples arbitrary guidelines.
I think Palm took all this into account, and hopefully will pay off. 2010 should be a great year on the webOS App front.
It's not that simple. iPhone apps are written in Objective C which is based on Mac OS. Apps that were truly developed for iPhone OS from the ground-up, specifically, will not be simple to convert to WebOS.
Objective C is just a C variant that can be compiled on any Linux system (just install gcc-objc). They would only have to port any Apple specific library calls to a similar SDL call.
Yes, they're very good at porting their apps to webOS. But, sadly, the games suffer from a really long loading time compared to the iPhone versions. Even compared to the old 3G! Yesterday, a friend of mine showed me the iPhone version of Real Tennis. We've launched the app in the same moment and while he already could play the match, I just had to sit and watch the loading screen. Interestingly, the gameplay speed was equivalent.
"The Time Machine, $0.99, by Appible: Read H. G. Wells
They're not charging for the text of the book so much as the app to read it.
Go into Barnes & Noble and you'll see a whole section of books that are in the public domain that have been printed with the B&N name on it.
That's the way it works.
They're charging for the ink, paper, and printing costs.
Hey Paladin - Could you send me The Time Machine and the Legend of Sleepy Hollow via email? It would be easier for me to store and read. I'd offer to compensate you for your time and effort but, hey, it's public domain so people shouldn't have to pay for it, right?
One good site is www.forgottenbooks.org and Google Books has many texts with a pdf download. If not, you can always use Google Books + Firefox + GreaseMonkey + "Google Book Downloader" + FlashGot + ImageMagick to create a .pdf. I never did that before until your comment got me to thinking about it. But, the time I spent looking up downloaders then stuffing the images into a pdf didn't take too long ( but I have put multiple .png files into a single pdf before ). And now it should only take a couple of mins for any book.
Do you want The Time Machine?
WOW!Great comment;I agree with you.But your a total arse.Until you give me a link to an app that you made.PLZ don't dis the devs of webOS.They need support as webOS is the future of handheld devices.Where else can you open ten apps at once?
Gordon, if you agree then how am I an arse :)
I just love Palm and WebOS. I don't want to see the catalog filled up with tons of crap. Look at the itunes store.
If you like Brighthouse Labs and their so called apps, that is your choice. I do not. Those are NOT an APPS!!!! They are just pointing you to freely available information! It just clogs up the app catalog with crap that we cannot even filter out! It makes WebOS look bad. They are not doing us a favor and are making money off of nothing. They should be free if they have to be there at all. I would rather nto see them at all or at least be able to filter them. What good is saying there are 1500 apps if 400 of them are just web links?
Ron: When barns B&N prints public domain books and charges you are paying for the printing costs as you already said. You get a tangible item in return so I can understand this. With that said this is the electronic age, no cost for a bit copy!
untidyguy: Just go to the links I provided man. They are royalty free.
Project Gutenberg is a GREAT source for classic novels.
http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
Just download those books into the FREE preader, done deal!
I simply cannot be alone here...Hey guys this is JMHO... :)
I installed the patch that hides (or greys out) apps from the app spamers.
You can also download free books from http://www.epubbooks.com/ that can be read with version 0.8.0 of pReader.
I did this yesterday on my Pre. I went to the book I wanted to download at the epubBooks web site on my Pre, tapped the Download EPub button which saved it to my Pre. I then opened pReader, tapped the Add Book To Library button, tapped the EPub button, selected the book which was converted and I started reading. The free pReader application supports PalmDoc, EReader, MobiPocket, Plain Text and HTML formats.
Paladin and Tannyo, big thanks to both. The ebook sites are great! This is why I love this forum. I have learned great hints from all of you. I honestly think that the people on this forum are what truly make my Pre great. I never have the time to look into all the apps and tricks myself. Thanks again both of you! I never would have learned about the free books for preader or music wave without reading comments from other users like yourselves.
Isn't "The Time Machine" FREE? I can go to any free online ebook place and get it.
http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/35
Not sure how they can sell it. :S
-Toaster
I see Dunghouse Labs is still spamming the catalog with their crap.
What about this -- why doesn't somebody put out an app called "Brite-House Labrador Quotes" or something and then just take all of the Brighthouse Labs quotes and compile them into one app. They have got to be public domain quotes so you could put out the app for free. The only hard cost would be having to purchase all of the Brighthouse Labs apps to get their quote lists (which could actually be a significant cost), but I'm sure you could get donations to cover. I'd hate to even support Brighthouse that much, but I guess I'd get satisfaction in knowing that the long term result would be bad for them.
Before you run off thinking this is a good idea, remember that whoever does this will have to commit themselves to a lot of maintenance and app updates and should plan on Brighthouse Labs rleasing another 15 quote apps or so per week.