Sanet Working

Archive for January, 2010

Just a decade ago, Palm was practically the only serious competitor to Microsoft’s Pocket PC operating system and devices running on it. They made a few great PDA’s (and a lot of mediocre ones) and licensed their operating system to other manufacturers, which resulted in very good devices like the Sony Clie.

But when smartphones started appearing, Palm lost the ball. They didn’t roll along with the times and didn’t understand what the users wanted. That’s why today, most consumers will tell you that they don’t know about Palm or at least that they had any smartphones.

And they do have some very nice devices. Their new redesigned operating system called Palm WebOS has a lot of features that rival those of the iPhone, Android and Windows Mobile, and the currently available Palm Pre and Palm Pixi smartphones can easily replace any other phone.

But the launch of the Pre didn’t cause as much excitement as it was anticipated, and that’s because, while the whole thing (the OS, apps, devices, features, etc.) was new for Palm, it wasn’t anything groundbreaking for everyone else. We’ve already gotten used to the calendar, web browser, camera, the apps and extensions that make up our smartphone experience with the iPhone, Android and even the older Windows Mobile. Basically, in a world where all the mobile devices can, Palm now can, too .

But there are people who really like the new devices and WebOS, and the Pre does sell pretty well, so not everything is lost. If Palm will manage to increase the number and quality of apps in their store, they will surely be able to hold their own against the other players.

Right now, their marketplace contains only a few thousand apps, as opposed to the tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands for Android and iPhone, respectively. That is really a small number, but as the first iPhone showed us, you don’t need numbers; you can do pretty well with quality alone. Let’s hope that Palm applies that strategy for their marketplace.

For now, let’s take a look at some of the best apps available on the Palm WebOS marketplace, which will help you work faster and make your life easier.

Super Contacts. The new WebOS default contact manager is disappointingly lacking a very important feature – categories. It only allows you to view all of your contacts in an alphabetical order list, which gets tiring when you’ve got hundreds of them. Super Contacts allows you to categorize you contacts however you want and assign custom gestures for a few useful things like sending an SMS or email. The free version has ads (like a lot of free WebOS apps do) and allows only allows 3 groups and only 12 contacts per group, which may be enough for some people, but those who don’t like ads and/or store a lot of contacts (like entrepreneurs and businessmen) might need to shell out $1.99 for the full version.

Evernote. This is an excellent tool to have for taking any kind of notes and storing any sort of information. You can save emails, notes and documents, web pages in catalogs and with tags that will help you find them later. The application can sync with your online Evernote account if you have one, which is very useful. The main difference between this WebOS app and its iPhone and Android counterparts is the lack of a voice recording feature, which is very useful when taking quick notes.

TweeFree. There are a lot of Twitter clients for Palm WebOS, but this one has the most features for a free application. TweeFree has a very nice interface and offers all the standard Twitter features – @ mentions, timeline, direct messages, search and favorites – which are more than enough for most users. There is a $2.99 upgrade that gives you a location-based “Nearby” stream and the ability to read and add to Twitter lists.

My Databank. A very simple, yet useful WebOS applications that will help you store and manage any type of data you want. It allows you to create simple list databases using text fields, check boxes and numeric fields. The app comes with a few lists pre-installed and you can download more by selecting “Share Categories” from the drop-down menu. You can also copy and modify lists on the fly and send information to other apps on the device. In a real world example, you can use this app to make a list of email addresses, then send a message to all of them (your personal pocket mass mailer) or open a few web browser windows (or “cards”) with one click.

Outline Tracker. This is a very useful application for entrepreneurs or people who like to plan their tasks and keep their time in check. It uses the Getting Things Done system, which allows you to break a bigger project into smaller tasks and schedule them at specific times every day. The app also has the ability to sync with Basecamp, which makes it practically a must have if you use it. The free version is limited to 50 entries, which may be enough for personal or small business use, while the paid version is $23.50, quit a bit more than the other apps on this list.

Pandora. This application allows you to stream any Pandora stations onto your Palm device. As you may know, Pandora is a great music streaming service, where you create your own channels (or “stations”) with your own artists and can stream it anywhere, anytime and share it with anyone. The Android application has become very popular, and this WebOS version is also very nice. You can buy and download any songs very quickly using the “Buy this song” button, which leads to Amazon, and the controls are in the phone’s notification area, so you can access them anytime, even while using other apps.

AccuWeather. This is a great application to keep track of the weather around the world. The main page shows you the local temperature, wind speed and humidity (based on the ZIP code you entered or your GPS location). There are other pages for 24-hour forecasts, satellite view over your location and a list of prospects for planning any events (you wouldn’t want have an open barbeque or run in the rain . The free version is supported by ads, and there’s a $1.29 fee for removing them, but if you don’t check the weather every half an hour or so, chances are they won’t annoy you.

As you can see, there are a lot of apps for the Palm WebOS that can do whatever you need. If you already own or plan on buying a Palm smartphone, do a search on the marketplace. Chances are you will find a solution for any of your problems.