Before Palm officially puts the final nail in the Universal Search coffin (to be replaced with Just Type in webOS 2.0), we figured that now is probably the best time to bring Universal Search to our Tip Roundup. Everyone using a webOS device should be familiar with Universal Search, as it allows you to search for contacts, apps, Google, maps, websites and so much more from anywhere on the device. If you are not familiar with Universal Search, all you need to do it just type while in either card view or in the launcher, and webOS will display the results right on the screen, to be accessed with a single tap. Keep reading after the break to learn what Universal Search is capable of, along with some additional tips to get the most out of your search.

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In addition to simply doing an address search within your TeleNav application (e.g. Sprint Navigation, AT&T Navigator), there are a few ways that you can import those addresses into your app, including options from both on your device and from a computer. Note that not all GPS navigation software is covered by this tip (such as Verizon Navigator), so please check the TeleNav Supported Devices page to check to see if your device is included. Continue reading after the break to learn how to import these address.

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Tell us, what colors does the Palm Pre come in? If you answered “black,” then you’re today’s lucky winner of a pat on the back. But perhaps the new honchos at HP will see fit to note the joy on actress Agam Darshi’s face when she pulls a pink-cased Palm Pre out of the box. Presumably it’s an original CDMA Palm Pre on Bell, as that’s where the show Dan for Mayor is based, so we know she’s getting a good deal as far as her service plan is concerned.

There is the matter of the phone apparently coming with features we hadn’t been told about, namely a digital compass, haptic feedback, and Street View in an unnamed mapping application. Of course, the digital compass can’t be faked if you don’t have the hardware, but if you want it, you can get haptic feedback on your Pre through patching, and Street View is available in the work-in-progress BFG Maps app. Oh, and the pinkness? We’ve got cases for that. Video of the whole deal after the break (thank goodness for region agnostic YouTube).

Have you recently spotted the Pre, Pixi, or other Palm device on your favorite show? Drop us a note at pretips@precentral.net with the show and a few relevant details like air date, time in the episode, and an online video link if you’ve got one!

Source: CTV

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Developers and users alike have all noticed this “Default Apps” option in the webOS launcher. Right now the only out-of-the-box option users are presented with is a choice of Google Maps or their carrier’s navigation solution (if applicable) for the default mapping software. But below the defaults for web, email, and phone, there’s a long list of file types and the default app used to open them (PDFs opened by PDF View, .WAV opened by Music, and so forth).

When the Default Apps scene appeared back in November with webOS 1.3.1, and was enabled with 1.3.5 a month later, we were all aflutter as to what that could mean for webOS. Pick your own third party dialer app (Google Voice), web browser, and more? That’d be grand. Sadly, Palm has yet to release an API for developers to set their app as an option for default apps, but that hasn’t stopped Jason Robitaille and Rod Whitby from hacking their way onto the Default Apps screen.

The addition of service calls registers an app with the Default Apps service, selecting the app as the default when no other apps present open that file type, and setting it as an option when there are already apps that open said file. For example, Robitaille’s Internalz app is registered as the default app for more than twenty different file types, and appears as an option for .TXT, with Doc View as the other and default choice. Tap on the file type, select the new apps, back swipe, and you’re good to go.

Jason does note that it’s not entirely stable (thus Palm not publishing the API), and that some not-all-that clean "mimetype" registering to get Internalz to be an option for file types already defaulted by another app (e.g. a PDF viewer app would have to masquerade as PDF View to trick Default Apps into giving it the option).

Of course, it’s worth noting that because Palm has not released the APIs to performing these service calls, any app submitted (be it to the App Catalog, beta, or web distribution feeds) will be automatically and summarily rejected. But that’s not to stop developers from wishing, hoping, dreaming, and preparing. And releasing via homebrew… nudge nudge, wink wink.

Source: MetaViewSoft

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There’s little debate that the native Google Maps application that ships with webOS is somewhat… lackluster.   It’s missing several key features such as layers and street view that have been available in competing operating systems for quite some time now, and the app continues to be plagued with performance issues. But fret not, webOS faithful, it’s beginning to look like you won’t have to resign yourself to living with a subpar Maps app for much longer: Palm has made it possible (as demoed in its latest Ares themed Developer Podcast)  for third party developers to take the very same Google Maps widget used in the native application and use it in their own applications, and those devs are finally starting to take notice.

One such app that’s caught our eye in recent times is BFGMaps. While very much in beta (it can currently be downloaded from Palm’s beta feed by way of this link or through Preware), this Google Maps based mapping app brings some much needed functionality, such as (somewhat) working street view, layers for buzz and foursquare and the ability to view bike lanes.  More importantly, it opens and acquires a signal fast.  It tends towards the sluggish side to be sure, there are features missing (search) and the ones that are there aren’t all 100%, but it shows a lot of promise even in this early stage of development as the developer has been iterating quite rapidly. If anything, it should inspire developers to look into making a mapping app of their own – a full-blown Maps app would do very well in the Catalog.

Source: PreCentral Forums; Thanks to Ryley for the tip!

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Universal search is an extremely powerful tool within webOS that allows you to access all kinds of data on your phone within a matter of seconds and from anywhere on your device. To access Universal Search, all you need to do is start typing on the keyboard while in the Launcher or while in Card View (to access card view while in an App, simply swipe up from the gesture area to minimize that app). In addition to Contacts and Applications searches, webOS can also do a variety of extended searches in the web or maps. Continue reading after the break to learn the specifics of these extended searches

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When Palm and AT&T are touting the coolness of YPmobile on the new AT&T Palm Pre Plus and Pixi Plus, we’ve came to realize that it’s the exact same app you can already find in the App Catalog. In fact, we’re disappointed in ourselves for skipping over the app so many times, simply because of the name that conjured up images of super-thick books full of phone numbers and really bad ads on thin yellow paper. The free YPmobile app for webOS couldn’t be further from the yellow-paged days of yore, and that’s a good thing.

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Welcome to Round Table, which is in fact not a table at all. Round Table is a continuing series on PreCentral where we pose a question to the staff and they provide their thoughts and insights. The question could be something simple like “what’s your favorite webOS app?” or something a bit more complicated, like “what was Palm’s biggest mistake in getting here today?” Or maybe we’ll just end up chatting about our favorite recipe for pumpkin pie, you never know.

Today, however, we’re taking a critical look at our devices and webOS and asking, “If there was one thing you could improve about webOS, what would it be, and why?”

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CrackBerry Kevin takes out some aggression…

UPDATE: Google has issued a statement about this, and it turns out that it was kind of true.

“We share revenue on search, not on mobile applications. The same is true for non-Android devices that use Google as the default search engine.”

There you have it. Nothing to see here. Move along.

***

While we won’t fault anybody for choosing an Android phone over the other offerings (though with webOS soon on America’s three largest networks, you need not feel forced into it), we do wish there were a level playing field on the corporate side of things. We’ve seen revenue sharing from the carrier to the phone maker (hello, original iPhone), but it’s not often we see it in the opposite direction. But that’s what we’re seeing from Google, at least that’s what MocoNews is reporting.

According to their anonymous sources at two different carriers, Google has an agreement with those carriers and the device manufacturers that if they support certain Google functions (e.g. Gmail, maps, etc) with built-in advertising, Google will share those revenues with the carriers and manufacturers.

Obviously, nobody’s going to issue a comment in the affirmative of this, they rightfully refuse to discuss confidential agreements. It’s also no secret that we’re generally fans of Google’s services, but their implementation on webOS sometimes leaves something to be desired.

So here’s the question: is Google playing fair? We have no idea how much Google is paying to companies for their cooperation, nor how much those payments have influenced carrier or manufacturer decisions to support Android. What we do know is that Palm can’t be happy competing with somebody that is actively paying carriers and manufacturers to support their products and services. Or maybe that’s just one of the benefits of having pockets so deep they might as well be bottomless.

[via: Android Central, Phone Scoop]

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It’s a question we’ve been pondering for a while, and with much more intensity in recent days: does Google care about Palm webOS? It is something we have to wonder about, with Google Maps on webOS lagging greatly behind its iPhone and Android counterparts, webOS being at first excluded from the Buzz party and then only invited inside the lobby, and the general lack of effort Google seems to be publicly exerting in getting their products to work to their full potential on webOS.

It all came to a head last week, with Google making a change to the way Google Voice works that ended up breaking webOS Google Voice clients, such as the popular gDial Pro. Nathan, the developer of gDial, learned that the change was not a move to break compatibility with unofficial Voice clients like gDial, but a natural progression of the development of the Google Voice system. In fact, Google has no problems with such unofficial clients and is pretty much willing to turn a blind eye to them so long as they aren’t acting in nefarious ways. Unfortunately, that blind eye doesn’t come with any support.

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