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Best Apps of 2009

Robert Werlinger — Fri, 01 Jan 2010 00:18:33 +0000

The App Catalog has seen impressive growth since it first went live a little over 6 months ago. Palm's Early Access program brought in dozens of developers who have created over 1,000 applications in that time frame, and while we don't have access to as many apps as other smartphone platforms do, there are a number of high quality ones that fit into all of the important categories.

With that in mind, we've created a list of the must have applications that have come our way in 2009. If you're new to webOS (you should also see our getting started guide), or have been with the platform for awhile and are unaware of how the Catalog has grown over these last few months, this is a guide for you.

New in the App Catalog for 21 December 2009

Derek Kessler — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 11:55:40 +0000

Strangely, the only new stuff in the App Catalog was old stuff - nineteen updates, but no new apps. So we held steady from Friday’s number of 843 apps, but as you may have seen from the Smartphone Round Robin videos posted last week and this week, that number is around double that in the Windows Mobile Marketplace. Of course, we’re still well behind the iPhone and Android app stores, and a few thousand behind BlackBerry App World, but then again Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein expects “several thousand” new apps with the release of the Ares development platform and the App Catalog’s emergence from beta. In the meantime, we’ve got a list of the updates, and it’s after the break for your perusal.

New in the App Catalog for 16 December 2009

Derek Kessler — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 10:48:41 +0000

We like apps, and now we’ve got more than 800 to choose from on the webOS App Catalog. Even better, of the few dozen apps that landed yesterday, not a single one of them was a sports app about a specific team or a recipe book with only a single cuisine. We got some more backgrounds and obscure albums; but we also got some nice stuff - like crosswords and BART schedules. All-in-all, a good day in app land, and it’s all listed after the break.

Crosswords Hits webOS

Dieter Bohn — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 01:58:30 +0000

Nearly every day now Derek has been posting up lists of new and updated apps and if you haven't yet, take this opportunity to thank him for what's quickly become a massive task. I won't lie, the number of apps that are hitting every day is getting bigger and at some point we may have to retire the feature if only to save Mr. Kessler's typing fingers.

In the meantime, I'm going to be selfish and point out one app that just hit. Longtime listeners of the PalmCast know I've been waiting for this: Crosswords. @audemars02 sent in the good word. Crosswords comes from Stand Alone Software - they made the best PalmOS Crosswords app back in the day and also make what I think is probably the best Crosswords app on the iPhone. Now they're on webOS and I'm not lying when I say that I got a little misty over it.

The app comes in a free 'lite' version with 30 built-in puzzles and a $9.99 version that lets you download puzzles from a couple dozen different sources, many updated daily. At first blush it looks fairly full featured with some decent keyboard navigation shortcuts, but unfortunately no pinch-to-zoom (you use the comma key instead).

$9.99 might seem a little steep, but it's actually the same price as the iPhone version. It's also nice that there's a lite version so you can check out the interface first (be sure to hit up the help / quick tips to learn how the navigation works). Me: I just laid my money down.

If you're reading this on a Pre or Pixi, you can click here to jump into the App Catalog to check it out. Oh, and as of this writing, the App Catalog just broke the 800 app mark (for US Palm Pre owners, anyway).