New in the App Catalog for 30 July 2010 24
by Derek Kessler
Sat, 31 Jul 2010 7:19 am EDT
Sat, 31 Jul 2010 7:19 am EDT 
Yesterday was a light day in the App Catalog, again dominated by our friends at Upward Mobility. They may have pumped some 123 test prep apps into the App Catalog to date, but we’re fine with that - afterall, they aren’t piles of you-can-find-it-with-Google wallpapers, quotes, and public domain books. That doesn’t mean we won’t continue to give them a hard time, but it’s all in jest and for the sake of having something to say on a daily basis about the App Catalog.
Anyway, if you filter out the Upward Mobility apps, here’s what was left:
- 1Reader Pro, a $2.99 app from SemicolonApps, lets you access your 1Password keychain and syncs it with DropBox.
- Cat Emergency is a handy guide to dealing with feline medical emergencies ($0.99, by Vimukti Technologies).
- DateCalc, free from the fine people at Palmdoc.net, lets you plug in a date and a time period and it’ll spit out what day you’re looking for (e.g. what day is 923 days before September 4, 2012?).
- Lowering Your Cholesterol, by AppBookShop and $4.99, gives advice on how to lower your cholesterol. If we had to take a guess, we’d say that the first steps include eating better and exercising more. Just a guess.
There’s more, but not a whole lot (it was Friday, after all), after the break. Hit it, you.
New apps:
- 1Reader Pro, $2.99, by SemicolonApps. Access your 1Password keychain from your phone and sync with DropBox.
- ASQ Six Sigma Black Belt Exam Prep, $4.99, by Upward Mobility. One hundred fifty example questions to get your ready for the Six Sigma Black Belt test.
- Cat Emergency, $0.99, by Vimukti Technologies. A guide to handling feline medical emergencies.
- CCRN Nursing Exam Prep, $7.99, by Upward Mobility. Get set for the CCRN Nursing exam with 723 (!) prep questions.
- DateCalc, Free, by Palmdoc.net. What day is 72 days after July 7, 2018? This app will tell you.
- Lowering Your Cholesterol, $4.99, by AppBookShop.com. Learn more about how to lower your cholesterol (hint: eat more healthily).
- PMLiftoff Project Management Training, $14.99, by Upward Mobility. Two hundred nine targeted test prep questions for the PMLiftoff Project Management Training exam.
- Praxis II Biology Exam Prep, $3.99, by Upward Mobility. Prepare yourself for the Praxis II Biology exam with 175 example questions.
- Praxis II Government Exam Prep, $3.99, by Upward Mobility. Get set for the Praxis II Government and Political Science exam with 120 sample questions.
- Praxis II Psychology Exam Prep, $3.99, by Upward Mobility. One hundred fifty prep questions to get you prepared for the Praxis II Psychology exam.
- Praxis II World and US History Exam Prep, $3.99, by Upward Mobility. More than 340 sample questions for the Praxis II World and US History exam.
- Real Estate Vocabulary Exam Prep, $1.99, by Upward Mobility. Get ready for your broker exam with 223 questions covering the essential terms you’ll need to know in the world of real estate.
- SAT II World History Exam Prep, $3.99, by Upward Mobility. Aim for a higher score on the SAT II World History Exam Prep with more than 200 sample questions.
- VTNE Veterinary Technician Exam Prep, $6.99, by Upward Mobility. Get prepped for the Veterinary Technician National exam with 400 sample questions.
Updated apps:
- ABCs 4 Kids, Free
- AlcoTest Drunk Calculator, $1.99
- Colorado Lottery, $1.00
- CompTIA A+ Essentials Exam Prep, $3.99
- CompTIA Server+ Exam Prep, $3.99
- Constellations for Kids Free, Free
- Math Flashcards for Kids Free, Free
- Quran, $1.99
- SAT II US History Exam Prep, $3.99
24 Comments
Time for my daily apology, at least it's not hard to sort out the other apps...
You can stop apologizing - at least you're spitting out legitimate apps. Specialized niche apps, but aren't 90% of apps like that anyway? You're cool (especially because you're attuned to the expectations and frustrations of webOS users). :D
LOL, thanks Derek. I appreciate that. I guess on a bigger app store we'd just be lost in the mire. I love the Palm product and community, and want to help make it better.
So what apps do people really want for the Pre that are really missing? I was thinking of building a really nice RSS feed reader.
@upward mobility: try some medical type prep apps too. Palm was always a staple in healthcare, though much ground lost in past 3 yrs. But now that we have epocrates lexicomp, Palmdoc.net's apps and some others, medical students, nursing students, medical residents, etc all good targets. Try some MCAT prep or health sciences, etc.
while you have lots of apps that don't apply to me, Derek is right. They serve a purpose and aren't repackaged public domain crApps. And we do need #'s in app catalog, even though quality should matter more than quantity, but the media looks @ shear numbers.
Thanks - working medical as a major vertical, we have some in nursing, dental, pharmacist, etc. Tough to find good writers to do this content though!
If your content is largely original, then I take back any negative comment I might have made about Upward Mobility apps. When I saw your initial deluge of test prep apps, I pegged you as another company that just regurgitates easily googled public domain content yet charges an almost obscene price (johnsonx42 casts scowl at AppBookShop, digit, Appible LLC).
Your apps are niche apps, but I can see from the comments of others that they are actually useful to those who need them.
Let me second Derek's comments. You guys are cool, not everyone is interested in games. And your stuff is useful to those who have a need.
If you are going vertical market in your offerings, do you plan on offering any IT related references and tools?
IT is a pretty good vertical for us - we've got some CompTIA apps that are pretty popular (one won us a prize in the Hot Apps competition). If there's anything you want to see, let us know.
I think in an ideal app store, you've have a number of players like us that target the long tail. And you'd have a really intuitive search interface that allows you to really find exactly what you want and cut through the clutter.
I also like Android's philosophy of allowing you to return an app after 24 hours, so you don't get tricked into paying for junks (which I have to admit I occasionally do). : /
Need a better time tracking app (for tracking time on service calls to be billed to clients). I use TimeTracker Full now, but it has some serious deficiencies; my complaints seem to fall on deaf ears. It would really be great if I could get a time tracking app that interfaced to QuickBooks.
@Upward Mobility: as far as RSS, we still need a Google Reader app that can use the Sharem Share With Note, Like, and Send To functionalities of Google Reader's web interface.
also, it would be awesome to have an Instapaper app.
Document editors are still missing.
A document viewing and editing program along the lines of the vaporous Douments to Go would make my Palm life easier. And after that one a faxing app like Cortado on the Blackberry. That would make the Pre my perfect work/play smartphone. And then I don't need one other thing......
A great PDF document reader would be nice.
A great PDF document reader would be nice.
Hmm...definitely seems worth looking at the document and viewing thing...don't have a need for a personally but it seems like a must for any smartphone platform.
I was looking at the faxing thing a bit and I wonder if that's a patented process...
Upward Mobility: Thanks for asking!
I visit clients each day and, every day, I copy the day's appointment with them to a new date. So, what I'm desperate for is a decent Calendar patch that can make coping an event as easy as it was with the Treos!!
In the old days, you could just press on the day-view screen (without having to open the event) with your stylus, a little pop-up menu would appear, and then you'd copy then go to the new day and press and paste. A snap!
Now, even with the "Edit Event As New" homebrew patch, it still takes too long! I have to open the event, then pull down the menu, then go to the new date WHICH TAKES WAY TOO LONG ON THE PRE! Sorry, getting a little carried away...
PLEASE, somebody, make this calendar user-friendly and FASTER!
"Thank you for your time and attention to this matter."
Hmmm...not sure our team would be that well suited to do something like this, but I feel like someone would be doing well just by porting the old Treo calendar/productivity package. Loved my 650...
hey how about an app for MyFax.com
great faxing solution... Virtually unlimited faxing for about $1.25 per month...
I can fax from any email acct to any fax machine.. & fax to my fax # from any fax machine (great way to get a doc into email for annotating/forwading)
I don't sell this just a happy user!
Awesome, you used my birthday as an example....September 4th. I feel special or something. ;)
Upward Mobility,
A hugh thank you for your consideration and valuable apps for us palm pre users. I am hoping for an outstanding pdf reader. I would like to download pdf files( lots of them) for my work. Any thing you can create and add to the app catalog is greatly appreciated by this palm pre user.
I think you meant, "A huge* thank Hugh*" which isn't said often enough. Thanks, Hugh!
A lot of other people have covered document editing, so I'll go with my other must-have app: an RDP client. More than anything else, it's what I miss having gone to WebOS, having previously used primarily Windows Mobile phones. Sure, there are options through Classic, but the PalmOS RDP clients have always seemed a bit kludgey to me. Hell, even Apple has a bunch of options for RDP, and I know they exist under Android, too.
When, oh when, will App Catalog open in "unofficial" Pre's, too?
Somewhat frustrating to read of this and that great app, none of them available for me.
And unfair too, since SOME unofficials HAVE access to apps, be it arbitrary number of.