Paid App Catalog appearing for select GSM Pre owners

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Derek Kessler | Wed, 25 Nov 2009 10:15 pm EST |

Through a strange twist of fate and a bit of hacking, some European Pre users aren’t getting the short end of the app stick anymore. While the vast majority of Pre owners on O2 and Movistar are still only going to see less than a hundred apps, it turns out that those that have used the WebOS Internals Meta-Doctor to bypass the activation process for O2 are now getting access to the full App Catalog, which as of today totals to 441 apps.

Right now the App Catalog appears to still be noticing where the Pre is, as those outside the US still cannot purchase and download paid apps, though those select few can at least see them. It’s a weird glitch, but an interesting one nonetheless as these Pre phones could be considered “without region,” but the App Catalog still recognizes that they are not in the United States region, and thus shouldn’t be allowed to download paid applications.

If you’re not familiar with what the WebOS Internals Meta-Doctor does, it essentially edits the webOS Doctor repair tool to make it easy to ‘flash’ a Pre with a modified ROM. The primary use for Meta-Doctor is to bypass the “first use” app that guides the user through setup. Doing so allows the Pre to be used without having been activated on a network, and subsequently sets GSM Pre phones up so that they can be easily activated on a different network than O2.

While we can’t completely discount the thought that this could be simply a glitch because of the non-standard settings Meta-Doctored users are running, we also can’t rule out that these non-standard settings have allowed the App Catalog to tap into what may eventually be a global App Catalog. All things considered, it seems most likely that it is a glitch, and one that has enabled access to the App Catalog seen by Pre users on Sprint. It will be interesting to see if when the ecommerce App Catalog is activated globally if these users will gain access to the paid apps in the US App Catalog.

Thanks to shadow-360 for the tip, and Parismessios3 in the forums!