Another day goes by and another “mobile application store” is announced. That is how it felt earlier this year when everyone was playing catch-up with Apple’s App Store. So when Palm announced webOS, it was only natural that this new platform just had to have some way for it’s users to add programs on the device. Palm’s answer was the App Catalog. Even though it is still in beta, the App Catalog has offered native third party apps since the first Palm Pre, the first device running Palm’s new webOS platform, was sold. While the App Catalog is important, I honestly believe that it is not as important right now as some of the programs that allow you to install Homebrew, third party apps that are not available in the App Catalog, programs like Filecoaster and Preload. Why?

One of the weakest parts of Apple’s App Store is that you cannot really deal with beta/alpha testing unless you go through iTunes. Even then, developers have a very limited number of spots they can offer to testers. What we end up seeing are “version 1.0″ apps that are not actually complete. The developers release apps and promise updates in the coming weeks/months.

I believe that even after Palm’s App Catalog comes out of beta and developers can charge for apps, the Homebrew catalogs can be used by the developers for testing updates that they do not want to release in the App Catalog. These same Homebrew catalogs can also hold apps if a developer doesn’t want to deal with Palm’s approval process or that Palm rejects.

This is basically like Cydia and Icy, the Jailbreak app catalogs for the iPhone, only Palm has come out in support of the Homebrew community. And this is the biggest distiction. Palm is supporting the developers in a way that Apple never will, by staying out of their way. It may not always stay this way, but so far Palm is content to let developers develop the way the developer sees fit. Sure, Palm may not approve some applications based on the criteria they choose, but that doesn’t mean that they are going to spen time and money making sure those apps will never show up on a webOS device the way that Apple is constantly playing the cat & mouse game with the Jailbreak community.

I am very excited to see how the webOS ecosystem evolves in the coming months and I believe that it will continue to grow, especially with Palm’s current attitude and commitment to their eager developers.

Are you a competitive person?  Do you compete with close friends or family members?  Are you so competitive that if you got a high score in a video game that you would want to rub that in the face of share that wonderful accomplishment with someone you love?  If you answered yes to these questions, then you are the type of customer that Apple and Palm may have had in mind when they designed one of my favorite features on the iPhone OS and webOS, the built-in screenshot function.

My wife and I have had a “friendly” competition with Bejeweled on the iPhone.  She quickly beat my highest score and then I never had a chance…until our son was born.  I found that a game like Bejeweled is a great way to pass the time when you are feeding an infant with one arm, which really gets in the way of other games like Resident Evil 4 or Need for Speed Underground.  To make a long story short, I finally destroyed beat my wife’s high score in Bejeweled.  Now the problem was that she was not around for me to prove it and I know she wouldn’t believe me unless I showed her proof.

Enter the great screenshot feature that Apple built into their iPhone OS.  All you do is press the power/top button and at the same time hit the home button.  Your screen will flash for a second and whatever was on your screen will be saved to your iPhone.  All I had to do was send her a MMS attach the screenshot to an email to share this life-altering accomplishment with my wife.

Like Apple, Palm also built a screenshot function into the Pre.  Their solution requires holding down the Orange + Shift + P buttons.  While I find the iPhone method quicker and easier, I ultimately prefer the execution of the Palm screenshot function.  The iPhone puts the screenshots in your Camera Roll, which is also where all photos you take with the camera and any pictures you save from a third party app are stored.  The Pre saves the screenshots in a category called Screen captures and that is all that goes into that category.  The Pre also has more meaningful names since it will actually include the name of the program you took the screenshot of in the file name.  If that wasn’t enough, Palm also stores both a .JPG and .PNG version of the screenshot if you connect your Pre to a computer in Mass Storage Mode.

Now, you might be asking yourself, what keys to I use if I am using Windows Mobile…or S60…or Android…or a Blackberry?  The quick answer is, without installing third party software, you don’t.

Big props to Apple and Palm for including a feature that has been overlooked by many others over the years.  I know that I really appreciate the fact that I can easily take screenshots of any app that I am reviewing without having to fool with third party software.

Does anyone else regularly use the screenshot functions on your phones?  If so, what do you use the screenshot feature to do?

MotionApps announced today that they are working on incorporating Hot Sync capabilities into an upcoming version of Classic for Pre.  Classic is an application for Palm’s WebOS based Pre that allows users to run native Palm OS applications in an emulated environment.  Until now, a glaring ommission has been the lack of Hot Sync capabilities.  In the upcoming enhancement, Hot Sync will be supported over Bluetooth and wifi.  MotionApps indicates that support for syncing the native Palm OS PIM apps as well as third party application’s conduits will be integrated, and will sync using the standard Palm Desktop software.  You can read the full announcment on MotionApps’ blog here.

Sitting on the couch, trying to unwind from the day, staring at the box with pictures, commercials start to appear.  Unless you have been living under a rock, it’s likely that you’ve seen commercials for the iPhone 3GS.  It’s also possible that you’ve seen commercials for the Palm Pre.  Each of them touts the device’s selling points.  Of  the two I’ve seen tonight (it’s almost like the two products are competing against each other), it’s interesting to watch just what selling points are being advertised.

For the Palm Pre: multi-tasking and web pages and internet / cloud connected apps that automatically update in the background, all at once.  No doubt, these are very handy feature.

For the iPhone 3GS: copy and paste technology.  Hmm,…

To go on record, I think both devices are great, it’s just that I think that telling a user how great a phone is because it offers copy and paste technology underestimates the intelligence of the consumer.

So, let’s start the discussion.  What features are worth being advertised in a prime time, national television spot?  What features are worth being advertised, period?

More worrying rumors for the new Palm Pre.  It seems that customers have been experiencing rapid battery drains.  As in the Pre is completely ‘powerless’ after sitting idle for 2 to 4 hours.  Now could this be a settings issues?  Sure.  Maybe its something that Palm can fix?  Possibly.  However, poor battery life can be a deal breaker for many people, myself included.  I don’t want to have to worry about charging my phone every 2 hours.  I have meetings at work longer than that, and I would hate to miss a call due to lack of ‘juice’.  Even Sprint is admitting that frequent charging is something that you may need to do. 

 

No – it’s good for a half a day of heavy use. I’ve been charging three times a day (noon, 5PM, overnight) but I’m heavy on the phone – 4 to 6 hours of calls a day on Bluetooth with all the apps open at once.  

We’ll get some tips on maximizing battery life out here next week.

Buzz About Wireless Admin
Sprint Nextel

I guess we will just need to wait and see.  Here’s hoping that this is something that is fixable. 

Via Gear Diary