webOS developer Geoff Gauchet, aka Zhephree, has been very busy of late. Not only has he recently updated his Foursquare application with new functions and bug fixes, but he just released the latest version of his link/page sharing app Neato! with a brand-new feature: it now allows users to send a link from their Pre or Pixi to the desktop, in addition to the desktop-to-smartphone option it previously allowed.

Sending a file is fairly simple. According to the in-app instructions:

To send to your computer, make sure you open neato! URL on your computer’s web browser (it looks like this: http://zhephree.com/neato/id/a1b2c3 and you can get it by tapping "View Link and Info".) Once the web page is open on your computer, tap the "Send to Computer" button in the app on your phone and enter some text or a URL!

As a reminder, to grab the URL of a Web page you are browsing on your Pre, scroll to the top of the page, and tap the page name above to turn it into a highlighted URL. Copy the URL (Edit–>Copy in the application menu, or by tapping and holding the gesture area while typing C on the thumbboard), and it is placed on the device’s clipboard, ready to be pasted into neato! (or any other document or screen).

Download Neato!

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Rockers rejoice as Rock Band, the iconic music gaming franchise, recently hit Palm’s official app catalog in the U.S. If you’ve seen Rock Band for webOS before, that’s because you live in Europe, as it was uncharacteristically released first in Europe before being released in the U.S.  Putting geography aside, may we say this app rocks?  There is a lot to like here: full version tracks, varied gameplay (including vocals) and smooth if not downright snappy performance.  Like the console versions of Rock Band, the webOS version is from Electronic Arts and is cross-branded from MTV Games and Harmonix Music Systems, which all add up to a very solid gaming experience.  Rock Band for $6.99 is a definite rock solid gaming choice.

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It looks like a little rumor that popped up on BGR yesterday is probably true: Verizon is going to be launching a ‘Mobile Recovery’ app for webOS in conjunction with asurion, who is the insurance company behind their Total Equipment Coverage program. If you’re enrolled, you download the app now by visiting the mobile recovery site or, heck, here is the direct link to it in Palm’s web feed. If you’re not enrolled (and doubly if you’re not a Verizon customer), you may be able to download it but you’ll get booted if you’re not signed up for TEC.

So.. what’s the app do? It can sound an alarm on your phone, locate a lost phone, and and lock your phone as well (though remotely erasing contacts is not supported).  

We’ve installed the app on our Verizon Pre Plus and, well, so far we haven’t actually managed to get any of the services at http://www.mymobilerecovery.com/ working just yet

Of course, those location services might be a little dicey – no word yet whether or not Verizon is allowing the app full access to aGPS because of their relationship with asurion or if they’ve allowed it to remain hobbled. We set ours to check every 10 minutes (and didn’t open VZ Navigator) for testing purposes and have to yet to get a lock, for what that’s worth.

The app was briefly available in the Palm webOS Web Feed and some of our members grabbed an early look, they seemed to like what they were seeing. Go on and take a gander at the web interface for locating (via Bing maps), sounding the alarm, and securing your Palm Pre after the break.

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It looks like a little rumor that popped up on BGR yesterday is probably true: Verizon is going to be launching a ‘Mobile Recovery’ app for webOS in conjunction with asurion, who is the insurance company behind their Total Equipment Coverage program. If you’re enrolled, you download the app now by visiting the mobile recovery site or, heck, here is the direct link to it in Palm’s web feed. If you’re not enrolled (and doubly if you’re not a Verizon customer), you may be able to download it but you’ll get booted if you’re not signed up for TEC.

So.. what’s the app do? It can sound an alarm on your phone, locate a lost phone, and and lock your phone as well (though remotely erasing contacts is not supported).  

We’ve installed the app on our Verizon Pre Plus and, well, so far we haven’t actually managed to get any of the services at http://www.mymobilerecovery.com/ working just yet

Of course, those location services might be a little dicey – no word yet whether or not Verizon is allowing the app full access to aGPS because of their relationship with asurion or if they’ve allowed it to remain hobbled. We set ours to check every 10 minutes (and didn’t open VZ Navigator) for testing purposes and have to yet to get a lock, for what that’s worth.

The app was briefly available in the Palm webOS Web Feed and some of our members grabbed an early look, they seemed to like what they were seeing. Go on and take a gander at the web interface for locating (via Bing maps), sounding the alarm, and securing your Palm Pre after the break.

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We have covered the issues with the GPS on Verizon Wireless’ Pre Plus in great detail (see here and here for just a few of our stories), and our forums have been filled with complaints, suggestions and patches all working to allow apps other than the VZ Navigator program reliably get correct GPS fixes on the Verizon devices. Yesterday, based on a suggestion I made in the forum, webOS developer James Harris (creator of Flashcards and other great apps) quickly put together GPS Fix, now available via the Palm Beta feed.

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 While we’re always happy to announce new games, we also appreciate the webOS love from GameFly, which has recently updated its free GameCenter application for webOS (along with Android and iPhone platforms). According to Gamefly, the new features in the webOS app include Calendar Notification (allowing users to mark calendars for upcoming new releases) and news, updates and price changes for webOS games. Gamers and wannabes alike can download the new release via the link from the PreCentral App Gallery.

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The webOS 1.4 update brought many new and welcomed features. One such feature was the new app loading system. It brought immediate app launch feedback and gave a pleasant splash screen to make it seem as though apps were loading a lot faster.

The splash screen system has been generally quite well received, with only a small number of people not liking it.

Keen-eyed users may have noticed several webOS apps seemed to have customized splash screen.  Apps like the web browser, tasks, and the calculator (as shown in the screenshot to the right) have customized splash screens.

Metaview is one such keen observer. On his blog, he explains how easy it is to add custom splash screens to any app.  In fact, all developers need to do is create a 320×480px PNG background image and a 256×256px PNG icon image then add then to your app’s appinfo.json file like:

"splashicon": "icon-256×256.png",
"splashBackground":"images/splash-screenshot-default.png",

Some might wonder why this neat new option is mysteriously absent from Palm’s appinfo.json breakdown. Well, put simply, that page is a bit out of date. In fact, it still refers to "miniicon", when that was officially changed to "smallicon" a while ago.  It’s very doubtful that using a custom splash screen in your app you cause any app submission guideline issues.

This is a neat bit of customization allowed on Palm’s part. It’ll certainly be interesting to see how creative developers can get in the future with their own splash graphics.

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pReader, a homebrew graduate that already supported Secure eReader and Secure Mobipocket formats for e-books (something that has substantially softened the impact of eReader’s own lack of webOS plans), reached another milestone this week when its author Jappus announced “experimental ePub support” with version 0.8 (for now available only via the app’s PreCentral Forum homepage).

As e-book and Apple fans alike know, ePub is an open standard for e-books that Apple has announced will be the chosen format for its iBooks app on the iPad. Other e-book readers and stores already support ePub, as does Popelli Reader for webOS. pReader, though, is the first webOS appp to combine ePub support with compatibility for other secure formats, allowing users to read DRM-protected e-books from sites like Fictionwise. With this latest improvement, along with ongoing tweaks of other functions, its open-source status, and its continued $0 cost, pReader maintains its leadership among e-book reading programs on the Pre.

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I just tested a review copy of Mezzoman (available in the App Catalog), which is designed to help two (or three) people "meet in the middle."On the whole, it seems to be a simple and useful app, although it has some limitations that are worth knowing about.

The essence of Mezzoman is very simple: the user puts in his own address (or uses current GPS coordinates, requiring location services to be turned on), and one or two (for the paid version) other addresses, enters a search term (I tried two searches, "kosher" and "bowling," since the program is not limited to food genres), selects a search results radius (apparently in miles, although it does not specify units), chooses from either review site Yelp or Google as a search tool, and hits the big "Mezzoman Go!" button at the bottom of the screen. The Mezzoman client will search for businesses meeting the search criteria in the radius around the midpoint between the two addresses.

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Preware Main Screen

Preware is a free Homebrew Installer from WebOS Internals for your Palm Pre or Pixi. Preware lets you download Homebrew Apps, patches, and themes directly to your phone. Once Preware is installed you do not need to be connected to a computer because Preware does it’s magic "Over The Air."

In a few minutes you will have access to hundreds of free Homebrew Applications, Patches, and Themes right from your phone!

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