As great as the Palm Pre out-of-box functionality is, there is still considerable room for improvement. I have written previously about Preware, an advanced Over-the-Air installer which lets you choose from hundreds of homebrew apps for the Palm Pre. However, until recently there was no easy way to address the functional shortcomings of the Pre's built-in apps. That has now changed with the arrival of the Patches feed. The Patches feed provides dozens of useful modifications for the native Pre apps. To enable Patches, you must first install the latest update to the Package Manager Service. Then you will see the Patches feed next time you run Preware.

Some of the many useful Patches include: landscape Email rotation, landscape PDF viewer rotation, adding the date next to the time display, ability to forward text messages, ability to download files from links in the Web browser, change default Calendar view, and many more. Click on the thumbnails to view screen shots.

Today I have discovered a very exciting homebrew app for the Palm Pre - in fact, I think this one is the most significant I have yet found. It's called Preware and it was developed by the WebOS Internals group. Preware is an OTA app installer and manager, but that's not all. The really exciting thing is that Preware can install advanced homebrew apps, like the on screen keyboard and the File Manager Service, which previously required complicated rooting procedures.

Additionally, Preware also lists apps from multiple repositories! And you can even add new repositories! How cool is that? But wait, there's more. Preware also checks all your installed apps and lets you know (with a little green arrow icon) which ones have available updates. Now you don't have to waste time going to each app's home page to see if there's a new version out. Sweet!

Preware must initially be installed using WebOS Quick Install. Follow the directions on the page linked below. It's really a very simple and easy install procedure. (Tip: why not copy WebOS Quick Install into your Pre using Drive Mode. Then you will have a copy with you to place on any computer wherever you go.)

Application:Preware

 

 

Recently Google has been picking up the pace, sending out invites to its Google Voice service. Hit the link to see what the fuss is all about. In brief, Google Voice lets you manage all your contacts, calls, voice mail, forwarding numbers, etc through one Web-based interface. It's a pretty useful service, but one drawback has been that you have to dial into it in order to place calls. This is pretty clunky, as you then have to manually type in the phone number you are calling. However, if you own a Palm Pre, there are some new unofficial Google Voice homebrew client apps that you can sideload with minimal effort. One of these is called dkGoogleVoice.

DkGoogleVoice allows you to pick contacts from your Pre's native Contacts app and then dial or text the number into Google Voice. It's a slightly hacktastic solution, as it really just passes the task to the native dialer and then you have to push the green button to initiate the call. But it definitely works, and it is a major time saver.

The app also allows you to view your Google Voice History. You can pick an entry and choose to Call or SMS. Unfortunately, in my testing this feature often froze the app. However, this app has another feature which does work: it will show you the transcriptions of messages left in your Inbox. Nice!

I think dkGoogleVoice shows a lot of promise despite the bugs in its current iteration. It is useable, and if message transcription is important to you then this app is for you. It's a beta build, so your mileage may vary. Presumably the bugs will get squashed in future iterations.

Recently Google has been picking up the pace, sending out invites to its Google Voice service. Hit the link to see what the fuss is all about. In brief, Google Voice lets you manage all your contacts, calls, voice mail, forwarding numbers, etc through one Web-based interface. It's a pretty useful service, but one drawback has been that you have to dial into it in order to place calls. This is pretty clunky, as you then have to manually type in the phone number you are calling. However, if you own a Palm Pre, there are some new unofficial Google Voice homebrew client apps that you can sideload with minimal effort. One of these is called gDial Pro.

GDial Pro acts as a front end for Google Voice. You can pick contacts from your Pre's Contacts app, then have gDial Pro dial them into Google Voice for you. It's a slightly hacky solution, as gDial Pro hands off the task to the Pre's native dialer and then you have to push the green call button to initiate the call. It works though, and trust me - it will save you a whole lot of time and effort.

GDial Pro also lets you send an SMS and check your Google Voice History. It gives you the option to dial or text entries in your History. These are handy features to have on your cell phone.

GDial Pro lacks two features I'd like to see: a direct call to Google Voice Messages (Inbox) and Message Transcriptions. This is a beta app under continuing development, so I expect that more features may appear in the next iteration. My limited testing did not expose any bugs, but your mileage may vary.

 

I've had my Palm Pre for about a month now, and I'm ready to expand my horizons. The official App Catalog is still pretty sparse and I have tried everything that interested me. I knew that developers were working on unofficial apps for the Pre, so when I found this article announcing a new GUI app installer named WebOSQuickInstall, I decided to take the plunge and start "sideloading" or installing apps not listed on the official App Catalog. I downloaded a couple of interesting homebrew apps, fileCoaster which lets you download and install homebrew apps (and other files) wirelessly, and dkGoogleVoice which lets you choose contacts from your device or dial a number and call or text them using your Google Voice number. I will review those apps in a later post.

Using WebOSQuickInstall is pretty simple. First, you download the file (it's a Java file which means it should run on any Java-enabled computer). Then, enable the Pre's Developer Mode. Then, plug your Pre with its data cable into your computer's USB port. Choose "Just Charge." Then, double click the WebOSQuickInstall file to launch it. On the first run, it will install some necessary files - about 128 MB so grab your favorite beverage while it downloads. Once the files setup, (you may need to wake up your Pre at this point) the GUI Installer window will appear. You can drag and drop your homebrew apps here, then install them into your Pre.

There is also a Device Manager that shows you what apps you have installed:

There's also a File Receive option that I couldn't get to work, but I may not have had the right file path:

WebOSQuickInstall is free to download and use. It's a beta product under continuing development - more features are promised to appear soon. I used it to successfully sideload the two apps I mentioned: