PreCentral.net

Welcome to the third and last installment of "There's a Patch for That!" Part 1 and Part 2 have already shown 28 of the top patches. Today we'll be exploring more of these user patches (tweaks), including Calendar, Camera, Clock, and Email patches.  

Patches are modifications (tweaks) that add key features to existing Palm applications. Maybe you wish you could change sounds or add a feature. Fortunately many of our Pre users are also talented developers who didn't just wish for these fixes. They made them! Note that the Homebrew Apps are separate programs, not patches.

The Getting Started: Homebrew Apps, Patches, and Themes guide shows you how to install and remove patches. For a list of patches, see Patches. As always, the usual warnings apply.  You're patching system webOS files, so stuff can break here. For many Pre users, though, the risk is well worth the reward. (See: How to Revive a Pre.)

And now for today's patches...

Calendar Patches

There are a number of brilliant patches that let you get more out of your Pre Calendar App. One of the Calendar patches lets you set your default view. Here is the Month View Default patch:

 

The All-Day Events in Month View is another notable Calendar patch.  This patch fixes a bug in webOS that prevents all-day events from showing up in Month View.  (Note: Not working in 1.2.1)
 

Camera Patches

There are a couple of significant camera patches to consider. The first is the "Camera Capture with Volume Keys".  This adds the ability to take a picture by pressing a volume key.  Other smart phones have had this ability and users wanted it for the Pre.  Done.

Users also wanted the ability to turn the shutter sound off while taking a picture.  So here is the Shutter Sound On/Off Button patch which adds this button:

Universal Search Upgrade

Do you want a more powerful Universal Search?  Then the KeyToss Keyword Search may be just what you are looking for. KeyToss adds 50 keywords to direct your search.  For instance, "d auspicious" finds "auspicious" on dictionary.com. "yt thriller" will search for "thriller" on YouTube. "w palm" would look up "palm" on Wikipedia.  "th phone" looks up "phone" at thesaurus.com.  You get the idea.

A Few More...

Another popular patch is the Hidden Clock.  It was there all along and even works in landscape mode. It just took the frankos72 to find it!

Have you ever wished you had more control over when the Pre screen automatically turns off?  With the "Standby Time" patch you can choose a number of new times. When you leave your Pre on a charger, you can now even set the display to Never turn off (like the Nodoze app).

In Part 1, we showed options for 4x4 and 5x4 Launcher screens.  Developers have already added even more options!  There are now Ver2 of each that address word wrap issues.  Even more amazing is the Launcher 4x4 Ver3 patch that is uses a much larger font and icons.  Take a look at the Launcher 4x4 and Launcher 4x4 Ver3 patches:

Look at how easy Ver3 is to see!  And here are just a last few patches that can't really have a screenshot.

Other Launcher patches let you hide the NASCAR, NFL, SprintTV, and Music Player icons.  Why hide the Music Player, you might ask?  Because Music Player (Remix) is so much better you don't want to accidentally use the Pre's Music Player. Messaging App patches include the patch to add Audio and Video attachments and Message Forwarding that uses the Messaging App to send an email!  How cool is that!

Improvements to the Web Browser include the "Swipe Delete History" patch that lets you swipe away history items. Another remarkable patch is the Browser Multi-Patch. It adds options to download or play streamable files. It will also enable the display of the URL bar in landscape mode. Finally, it adds hotkeys for page up, page down, and more.

Some patches can only be applied with the WebOS Quick Install such as a greatly improved AutoCorrect Dictionary to correct many more typos and spelling errors as you go. The iPhone User Agent Spoof patch makes websites think you are an iPhone so they display beautifully.  "Web Browser Ad-Blocker" is another patch not available through Preware at this time.

In these three installments, we have covered barely half of the patches so we may have missed some of your favorites.  See the webOS 1.2.1 Patch Discussion for details on dozens of other patches and how to install them. With new patches coming almost daily, you never know what might come next. Stay tuned!

The 280,000 PreCentral members know the patch secret but what about the rest? Palm, if you happen to be reading *wink*, maybe put the App Limit Fix together with a dozen patches and you would have a fantastic webOS update. Bundle the Virtual Keyboard with another dozen patches and you have a major update. Grab another dozen patches each month and you could have a nearly endless stream of updates.  Shhh! It can be our little secret!

Craig Lincoln, aka Milominderbinder, is a moderator on the PreCentral forums and the developer of the Palm Pre Tips and Tricks. Craig's recent articles include Music Player (Remix), There's a Patch for That (Part 1), Part 2, and Part 3, and Getting Started: Homebrew Apps, Patches, and Themes.