Comments on: App Catalog Updates Coming Thick and Fast

And so we come, as we inevitably must, to the weekly webOS App Catalog updates. What's new? Some of Facebook's most annoying games, for starters: m:Vampire and m:Mafia both make their webOS debuts. At least these won't be spamming your news feeds... we hope. On the brighter side, there's much cooler stuff like Guitarist's Reference (a handy aid for all aspiring axe-wielders, like me), mobile gaming classic Snake and a demo of GolfPinFinder (sure to be popular amongst the executive class).

Read on for the full list of apps.

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App catalog very telling

Tuckermaclain @ 9/27/2009 9:27:07 AM #

Tic Tac Toe and Mafia Wars typify the types of programs available for the Pre.

The Palm (the old one) was primary a small computer that helped us be productive and it had value in that aspect.

The Pre is a toy tacked onto a telephone designed to help you kill time like the TV at the doctor's office. Anesthetize your brain and deliver some commercials. It's primary purpose is really a conduit for advertisers, IMO.

RE: App catalog very telling

DarthRepublican @ 9/27/2009 12:31:29 PM #

So because of Tic Tac Toe and Mafia Wars (both of which were available on the Palm), then the Pre is a worthless toy? Don't gDial Pro, CarpentersLevel, Timepiece, demConvert, PasswordHash, MortCalc, BusCalc, MediPDA, Currency Converter, ZIP Code Tools, and Pack 'n' Track count as productivity apps? It may seem shocking but Documents to Go didn't exist for the original Pilot 1000 or even for the Palm Pilot. It took years to get a decent office suite onto the PalmOS. You are comparing a platform that lasted for thirteen years to one which is only three months old.
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/

Snake? Tic Tac Toe?

Gekko @ 9/27/2009 1:33:05 PM #

what year is it? 1996???????

RE: App catalog very telling

nastebu @ 9/27/2009 2:01:47 PM #

Tim's cheerleading notwithstanding, it's a pretty thin list. These are written in-house by Palm? Or are these from developers given early access to the SDK?

RE: App catalog very telling

Tim Carroll @ 9/27/2009 2:13:58 PM #

^^ "Cheerleading"?

(tries to imagine self in skirt and waving pom-poms. Shudders)

No, these aren't written in-house. Any of them. All are third-party. Many of the apps are graduates from PreCentral's homebrew catalog.

It may be a thin list, but bear in mind this is just this week's updates - and that there's likely to be an explosion in the next couple of weeks once the App Catalog starts selling paid apps.

FWIW, I agree with Darth - it's very early days for webOS.

RE: App catalog very telling

Gekko @ 9/27/2009 2:58:18 PM #

too little, too late.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Nsy1Z4y2vE

RE: App catalog very telling

mikecane @ 9/27/2009 4:02:19 PM #

Yes! YouTube Iron Chef Battel with Gekko!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xW6bqVrCl6Y

RE: App catalog very telling

nastebu @ 9/27/2009 5:49:59 PM #

No doubt, it's the early days and things will get better. It took a year to get a useable spreadsheet application on the iPhone.

RE: App catalog very telling

DarthRepublican @ 9/27/2009 9:43:42 PM #

If we're going to play...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulVDM0a49Lw

...captures the zeitgeist of this thread nicely don't you think?
Palm Apologist
Shouting down the PIC Faithful Since 2009
Screw convergence
Palm III->Visor Deluxe->Visor Platinum->Visor Prism->Tungsten E->Palm LifeDrive->Palm TX->Palm Pre
Visor Pro+VisorPhone->Treo 180g->Treo 270->Treo 600->Treo 680->T-Mobile G1->Palm Pre
http://mind-grapes.blogspot.com/

RE: App catalog very telling

mikecane @ 9/28/2009 10:43:16 AM #

Battel on!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2fBj2wsimvQ

RE: App catalog very telling

Gekko @ 9/28/2009 11:10:33 AM #

You're Nobody (Til Somebody Kills You)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4w6q0cxdpU

RE: App catalog very telling

mikecane @ 9/28/2009 5:56:06 PM #

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HJEySrDerj0

FTW!

Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

Gekko @ 9/28/2009 7:06:05 AM #

Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads
Published: Monday, 28 Sep 2009 | 9:41 AM ET
By: Reuters

Apple said Monday that downloads from its iTunes applications store have passed 2 billion and it now has more than 85,000 apps available for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

http://www.cnbc.com/id/33056231

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

mikecane @ 9/28/2009 10:44:07 AM #

What was the peak number of PalmOS apps at one time? 30,000?

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

Gekko @ 9/28/2009 11:14:22 AM #

Monday, September 28, 2009 | 32,378 software titles submitted to date

http://www.palmgear.com/

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

freakout @ 9/28/2009 3:15:23 PM #

Not to sound churlish, but considering the Apple recently booted one developer with something like 900 spam "apps" (so much for Apple's iron-fisted grip ensuring "quality"!), the more cyncial side of me wonders how many of those apps are actually worth anything.

Still, it's an impressive number.

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

mikecane @ 9/28/2009 5:54:10 PM #

My ongoing Kafka-esque nightmare of dealing with Palm and their App Catalog submission process.
http://jwz.livejournal.com/1096401.html

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

nastebu @ 9/29/2009 3:28:44 AM #

freakout wrote:
Not to sound churlish, but considering the Apple recently booted one developer with something like 900 spam "apps" (so much for Apple's iron-fisted grip ensuring "quality"!), the more cyncial side of me wonders how many of those apps are actually worth anything.
Still, it's an impressive number.

Careful, you might have to think about how many of Palm OS's 35,000 are worth anything.

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

nastebu @ 9/29/2009 3:35:29 AM #

Sorry, another thought. It's worth saying that 2 billion downloads doesn't necessarily mean that there's a lot of quality on the app store, but it does mean that people are finding what they're looking for. TV, for the vast part, is flat out terrible. But it's a huge market because that's what people want.

From Palm's point of view, I wonder if this is good news? On the one hand, people who spend a lot of money on the app store might be very reluctant to switch platforms, but on the other hand, it means people are willing to spend a lot of money on mobile phone apps.

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

Tim Carroll @ 9/29/2009 4:02:25 AM #

Cane: that's an interesting link. I'm hoping to try and set up an interview with the new Developer Relations guys later this week (if I ever find the bloody time), that might be interesting to bring up...

nastebu:

Careful, you might have to think about how many of Palm OS's 35,000 are worth anything.

Heh. That's exactly my point, though: the BIG NUMBERS are impressive, but in the end it all comes down to quality in the selection. iPhone certainly does have a number of great apps for it, but I'd imagine they're a teensy percentage of the total. That's why I always shake my head whenever the mainstream tech press compares the webOS App Catalog to the App Store in terms of apps available - the numbers are essentially meaningless. What really matters is quality apps, and Palm are obviously making a big effort in that respect.

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

Gekko @ 9/29/2009 5:14:30 AM #

tic tac toe and snake?

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

Tim Carroll @ 9/29/2009 5:32:30 AM #

^^ Lol. Touche`. Those are not the best examples. But you've got Docs2Go on the way, Epocrates on the way etc. Palm have a bunch of decent apps listed on their own page: http://www.palm.com/us/products/software/mobile-applications.

It's a work in progress, but they're made good progress thus far. IMO. I know you certainly weren't taken with webOS. :P

Also, talking about churlish, I just saw this on Twitter. Ben Galbraith (new developer relations guy) tweets this to the guy Cane just linked to:

http://twitter.com/bgalbs/statuses/4455651650

Who then replies:

http://twitter.com/jwz/status/4455819770

How diplomatic of him. With an attitude like that, no wonder he's having trouble.

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

SeldomVisitor @ 9/29/2009 6:22:04 AM #

Given what he posted in his diatribe against Palm, I'd say his response was entirely appropriate. Seriously, at SOME point you just have to say:

== "That's it - I jumped through their hoops enough. Time for THEM
== to be proactive about this"

and leave it.

Android's a cool platform and rapidly undergoing cool improvements, not to mention the MUCH wider potential-customer set. He would do well to move there.

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

Tim Carroll @ 9/29/2009 6:26:07 AM #

Eh, maybe I'm nuts, but when someone extends an olive branch it's generally considered bad form to bend it over your knee and snap it...

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

Gekko @ 9/29/2009 6:55:27 AM #

no you grab it and beat them with it.

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

nastebu @ 9/29/2009 6:58:09 AM #

SeldomVisitor wrote:
Given what he posted in his diatribe against Palm, I'd say his response was entirely appropriate. Seriously, at SOME point you just have to say:
== "That's it - I jumped through their hoops enough. Time for THEM
== to be proactive about this"
and leave it.

Sure, sometimes you have to say that. But then you lose your right to complain about how inflexible and unsympathetic they are, because you're being inflexible and unsympathetic as well.

On the quality of iPhone apps, again, the proof is in the 2 billion downloads. Obviously, the market says there is enough quality there to spend a lot of money and time downloading. Personal needs may vary, but the mass of consumers is happy.

Personally, I'm very happy with what I've bought for my iPhone. The Japanese language apps are particularly good, but I've bought others as well.

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

abosco @ 9/29/2009 6:59:58 AM #

Like usual, I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with Tim's statements about the app numbers. Browse the App Store yourself. You'll see a huge amount of high-quality apps at such competitive prices. Remembers when Docs2Go used to be a $30 upgrade every year?

It's now $4.99.

Look at TomTom or Navigon, Madden 2010 or TapTap 2, Red Laser or Shazam. There are certainly things to question about Apple's ecosystem, but the legitimacy of its App Store is not among them.

RE: Apple Passes 2 Billion App Downloads

Tim Carroll @ 9/29/2009 1:42:15 PM #

Like usual, I'm going to have to go ahead and disagree with Tim's statements

How dare you! :P

No, really, I know there's a lot of good apps in the App Store. I often jealously browse its wares from afar myself. But when you can have one developer with 900 apps...

http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2009/08/apple-dumps-app-developer-and-his-900-apps-from-app-store.ars

...and apparently there others that are even worse...

Shaikh isn't even the worst offender—MobileCrunch identified Brighthouse Labs, which has over 2,000 99¢ apps, many of which are similar to those posted by Shaikh.

...it raises certain questions. "Politically charged" apps that encourage civil engagement are rejected (http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/09/apple-denied-health-care-app-for-political-reasons-developer-says/), Google Voice is rejected, no one is allowed to build alternate media players, but spam is A-OK?

The App Store approval process sets the bar for WTF...