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New to the App Catalog, 6 May 2010 17

by Dieter Bohn Thu, 06 May 2010 8:30 am EDT

App Catalog Sometimes you get pithy commentary with your new apps and sometimes the man who normally brings you your new apps is gone and you're stuck with some poor schlub. You have already guessed which time you're looking at, haven't you?

On the other hand: Transformers! No, real Transformers - sincerely, having that autobot logo on your launcher is very nearly worth the price of the app all by itself.

New apps:

  • TRANSFORMERS G1: AWAKENING, $6.99, by Glu Mobile. Oh yeah, it's the original transformers, not these new-fangled Michael Bay travesties
  • Emergency Assist, $3, by ivans-inc.com. Emergency Assist makes it very simple to location emergency services including hospitals, pharmacies, police and veterinarians with a few simple clicks.
  • Guy Ate Here, $0, by Airent, Inc. Get details on the closest restaurants featured on the Food Network's Diners, Drive-ins and Dives.
  • Beer Knurd - Flying Saucer UFO Club, $0.99,  Sinime. Track your your quest to drink 200 beers
  • Fall-E, $0,by KargeSoftware. Ball Roller Game
  • Gamer's Dice, $1.99, by Dragongears. Roll up to 20 regular 6 sided dice or choose from several other popular die types used in many role playing games and board games.
  • SMS77-Client, $0.99,by Marcel Meissel. A client for http://www.sms77.de/
  • Plane Spotter, $0.99,by BeerGremlin. Quickly search the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) database and view information about a specific aircraft.

 

Updated apps:

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17 Comments

Posted by Depadilla on Thu, 06 May 2010 8:32 am EDT

TRANSFORMERS! Yes!

Posted by Derek Kessler on Thu, 06 May 2010 8:40 am EDT

Poor shlub? ------------>

Posted by Dieter Bohn on Thu, 06 May 2010 11:28 am EDT

*I* am the poor schlub!

Posted by meyerweb on Thu, 06 May 2010 8:43 am EDT

Wow. I don't think there's one app here that would motivate anyone to buy a Pre just to get that app. If HP can't motivate the big developer community to create professional quality and business class apps, the Pre is going to fade into oblivion.

Posted by rlopin on Thu, 06 May 2010 9:44 am EDT

Don't underestimate the power of a niche app to breed loyalty to a platform.

An app does not have to appeal to a broad audience to be successful.

For example, the Squeeze Control app is extremely valuable to me because I am running SqueezeServer at home from my ReadyNAS to stream music to any of my three SqueezePlayer devices spread all over the house. The ability to control all of them from my Pre is fantastic. The app is $5, and it so useful both myself and my wife bought a copy for each of our Pres.

If I were considering a phone platform I would immediately ask, "Is there an app to control Squeeze Players?". The vast majority of folks wouldn't have any idea what the app is for or would not find it useful. But for me, that app is a must have. Actually, I must not be the only one who likes it because it is listed as one of the fastest moving paid apps in the HotApps contest this week (http://palmhotapps.com/fastmovers.jsp).

Posted by billybennett on Thu, 06 May 2010 10:22 am EDT

The Pre will obviously fade in to oblivion because Palm/HP will be coming out with new devices to entice people over to the platform. Thanks for playing.

http://www.precentral.net/app-gallery/app-catalog/wells-fargo-mobile

Posted by Jonathan I Ezor on Thu, 06 May 2010 8:47 am EDT

"Gone" but certainly not forgotten, or forever! Salute to Derek, who is off to short-term [Bill Murray] "Aaaaarmy Training, Sir!"[/Bill Murray]. {Jonathan}

Posted by kld2009 on Thu, 06 May 2010 9:24 am EDT

We salute you and others, after the break.

Posted by SirThoreth on Thu, 06 May 2010 9:42 am EDT

The good news: GLU releasing their Transformers game (available for a couple months on the iPhone/iPod Touch) on the Pre is a good sign for the future, that developers are giving consideration to porting their apps over.

The bad news: GLU releasing their Transformers game for more than *twice* the price ($6.99 on the Pre, vs. $2.99 on the iPhone) hints that we Pre users may end up having to pay more for the same content.

Posted by rlopin on Thu, 06 May 2010 9:55 am EDT

Half the potential user base, double the price.

Wait, Apple has way more than double WebOS's user base -- so this is a bargain!

Posted by bjs188 on Thu, 06 May 2010 1:22 pm EDT

I will take that math. I pay about half per month with my sprint pre than my wife's iphone, so i would have to buy dozens! of apps at 2x the price every month before it is cheaper to have an iphone. Stop looking at price of an app and whining because it is 7 bucks.

Posted by SirThoreth on Thu, 06 May 2010 3:50 pm EDT

It's not that it's $7. It's not even that this one app costs more than twice the iPhone version. It's that it potentially sets a trend that, in the long run, could result in the Palm app store continuing to lag behind other platforms.

Let's take another example, an app I ran on my Treo 700wx: Agile Messenger. The Windows Mobile and Symbian versions are currently both $45, with no new version release for, it seems, years. The iPhone version, which was released after those is only $10, as is the Blackberry version, which also appears to be a newer release. The Android version just ended open beta, and I can't find a price on the finalized app, and the Palm version is "coming soon".

What price, do you think, given our small user base, that Agile will set for the Palm version?

My concern is that we're going to see, because of the small userbase for Palm, developers either decide that WebOS isn't worth developing for or, alternatively, release apps at higher prices, have poor sales, and subseqently decide to abandon the platform.

Posted by cobrakon on Thu, 06 May 2010 4:56 pm EDT

@SirThoreth

*insert deadhorse.gif*

Seriously? How long are you going to play the "small userbase card". ALL tech media concurs WebOS is the best mobile OS currently out and the hw is the achilles.

That's no long a concern. (see math below)

HP > Apple = WebOS wins.

Any questions? :)

Posted by SirThoreth on Thu, 06 May 2010 6:50 pm EDT

>>Seriously? How long are you going to play the "small userbase card".

Considering that's pretty much the first time I've made mention of it on this site, I'm curious as to why you're directing your ire at me, implying this is something I've been harping on for an extended period.

It's especially amusing, given I haven't even had my Pre an entire month yet, and have been on this site for a fraction of that time.

>>ALL tech media concurs WebOS is the best mobile OS currently out and the hw is the achilles.

And Betamax was a superior format to VHS. We see where that got it.

Sometimes being superior isn't enough - you have to get people to want to use your product. WebOS has struggled on two sides: a smaller app catalog, trouble with developers (see DataViz for an example), and a smaller user base. To some degree, it's a vicious cycle: fewer users means less interest from developers, thus fewer apps, thus the appearance that the WebOS platform is inferior to Android or Apple's platform.

>>That's no long a concern. (see math below)

>>HP > Apple = WebOS wins.

HP makes a lot more than just a handful of desktops, laptops, media players and smartphones. Their profits, and their development money, is spread across a number of platforms.

A more important consideration will be to see how much HP ends up spending on WebOS development, and mobile devices running WebOS. That's something we don't have an answer to yet, because it's far too early in the game for that to have been determined, let alone made public.

>>Any questions? :)

Sure: show me the increase in userbase, the expansion of WebOS, or anything concrete that HP has done since taking over.

Oh...that's right, the sale's not even *final* yet.

Will HP, who is a larger company than Apple, be able to bring more financial and human resources to WebOS than Palm was able to do? Sure. Is that a guarantee of success? Not in the slightest: Microsoft is a larger company than Apple, and we've seen how well Windows Mobile has done against the iPhone.

Might HP manage to increase WebOS's market share, attract developers and attract users? Sure - in fact, I'm guardedly optimistic that they'll be successful at exactly that. But we're not there yet, and there's no guarantee that HP will be successful at doing so.

Posted by cobrakon on Fri, 07 May 2010 2:09 am EDT

@SirThoreth

Err...meant to write "you people" not *specifically* singling you out but all those making the "small platform statements".

I agree with most of your points except for these few.

[Sure: show me the increase in userbase, the expansion of WebOS, or anything concrete that HP has done since taking over.]

Browse Palm and Pre forums and you will see that the "spotting" of WebOS phones is increasing.

[Will HP, who is a larger company than Apple, be able to bring more financial and human resources to WebOS than Palm was able to do? Sure. Is that a guarantee of success? Not in the slightest: Microsoft is a larger company than Apple, and we've seen how well Windows Mobile has done against the iPhone.]

Simply put, WebOS > WinMo X so it's no surprise there. Read all the tech media, WebOS is touted as the first 'true' contender to Apple OS. (and hell, PalmOS > WinMo X) :)

[Might HP manage to increase WebOS's market share, attract developers and attract users? Sure - in fact, I'm guardedly optimistic that they'll be successful at exactly that. But we're not there yet, and there's no guarantee that HP will be successful at doing so.]

Even *BEFORE* HP bought out Palm, "big name" developers\companies came on board and started releasing apps. A few from the last couple weeks:

GameFly
GrooveShark
HandsOn Mobile
MTV
Ultralingua

All that plus we are adding 150 apps a week up from a 100 in the 2 weeks prior. :)

Posted by DSPKweb on Thu, 06 May 2010 11:09 am EDT

There's more than meets the eye with the app.

Posted by rlopin on Thu, 06 May 2010 2:54 pm EDT

LOL -- me likes.