Palm Pre Apps — A Weekend with Homebrew Titles

fcoaster_2009-10-08_093018On Friday, I pointed out the unofficial Palm Pre homebrew application catalog over at PreCentral. At that time, there were 73 titles and already, more have been added. As I write this on Monday morning, I see 94 applications in the catalog, so developers clearly didn’t take the weekend off. Neither did I as I started installing various applications to try.

I didn’t hit up every single title, but I did download a half-dozen to get started. If you have a Palm Pre and you’re pining for more apps, you’ll want to check out this easy method to add more titles to your handset.  Some titles  are clearly works in progress, so if you decided to go this route, keep that in mind. But others are very usable and useful.

prepodI’m already using PrePod on a daily basis — this app is a podcatcher that pulls down podcasts for listening on the go. The initial podcast catalog is sparse, but it’s easy to add the RSS feed for any show you listen to, making it simple to subscribe. I started to listen to our latest podcast to check the sound levels and I realized that PrePod saves your spot if you leave the podcast. You can see the blue indicator showing the point that I’ve listened to in episode 179.

dkgooglevoice_2009-10-08_093126dkGoogleVoice is one of those works in progress I alluded to. The software is essentially an unofficial front end to the Google Voice service that I use every day.

The software appeared to be fairly functional in the prior version, but the most current version isn’t working for me at all just yet. I’ll be keeping an eye on it for sure, but for now, I’ll keep using the mobile web version of Google Voice.

BlocknRoll is a nice little Tetris clone that kept me busy for hours this weekend. It took me some time to get used to the controls — you can use either the touchscreen or the keyboard to turn and drop your blocks. I like the idea of using the touchscreen, but in the end, I opted for the keyboard for a faster response. It wasn’t until later that I realized you can shake or tilt the Pre as well. Using the accelerometer was fun for a while but felt too much like playing Wii Tennis. ;)

prepackage_2009-05-08_230158As I mentioned on Friday, FileCoaster is the first app you’ll want to install. Why? This title lets you untether your Pre for software installations — using it, you can view the entire homebrew application catalog right on your Pre, see screenshots of the titles and install them over the air.

In fact, I’m hitting up FileCoaster right now. I’m expecting some packages to arrive this week and I want to install PrePackage before they get here. No self-respecting mobile tech geek has packages on the way and doesn’t know where they are at all times!

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