Palm Pre Touch Phone » homebrew

How to install homebrew apps on your TouchPad or webOS smartphone

Derek Kessler — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 01:45:33 +0000

Ready to jump into the wide world of homebrew on your TouchPad, Pre, or Veer? Alright! Here's what you need:

Your webOS tablet or smartphone
A computer, Mac or PC, connected to the internet
A Micro-USB cable to connect the webOS device to your computer (you can use the cable that came with the device, but any Micro-USB cable will do)
A stiff drink (this isn't required, but you'll deserve one for being awesome enough to be doing homebrew)

Got that? Okay, time for some clarifications. webOS devices do not need to be "rooted" - they come from the factory open enough that special tools aren't needed to install apps outside of the App Catalog or gain access to the operating system. The process of getting a homebrew installer set-up is relatively straight-forward and doesn't involve anything scary or potentially warranty voiding (there are potentially warranty-voiding things you can do after that, but everything described in this how-to is perfectly acceptable).

Theme Manager, ready to manage your themes, sees a public release

Derek Kessler — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 01:59:50 +0000

Good news, webOS Nation: Theme Manager is now available! The Enyo-based app by Janne Julkunen (better known around these parts as homebrew master coder Sconix) is now available from WebOS Internals and stands ready to safely install, remove, and mix-and-match your themes.

Thanks to AUSMT, Theme Manager is 100% update safe, meaning you shouldn't have to panic about removing themes before installing an update to webOS. The app can manage both ZIP- and IPK-packaged themes, both side-loaded and downloaded. Themes are even applied in the background by Theme Manager, though a quick Luna Restart may be required afterwards for the changes to take affect.

Have multiple themes and like to switch things up? You can actually mix-and-match parts from multiple themes - a wallpaper from here, icons from there, a boot logo from that one, and system menus from the other one. You can even just pick an aspect or two from a single theme and add them to the default theme - just pick that one part of the theme you like and hit the apply button.

We're working on adapting our own themes gallery here at webOS Nation to be Theme Manager compatible, in the meantime developers interested in packaging their themes for compatibility can find instructions on how to make that happen at the source link below.

Roundup: Email app

Adam Marks — Fri, 17 Dec 2010 19:38:07 +0000

With over 25 existing tips that reference some aspect of the Email app, there are lots of great tidbits of information that will help you navigate and use the Email app on your webOS device. From searching for an email, to discarding a draft, to saving a video from your email, you can access all those email-related tips by clicking here. To review some of the top-rated and most useful email-related tips, continue reading after the break.

Roundup: Universal Search

Adam Marks — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 18:09:29 +0000

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.

Music Player (Remix) 2.0 getting Quick Actions, Just Type search, Autolists, and more [video]

Derek Kessler — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:59:53 +0000

If there’s one homebrew app that’s been incredibly popular from the start, it’s been Music Player (Remix). What started as an enhancement of the built-in webOS Music app, Remix has evolved to version 2.0 with a completely new UI, awesome utilization of dashboard controls, and more.

See everything that's new, including a video, after the break!

Community ‘telethon’ raises over $8,000 for Pre 2 phones for homebrew devs

Derek Kessler — Mon, 06 Dec 2010 16:27:45 +0000

In order to test all of the awesome things they’re doing for compatibility with webOS 2.0 and the new Palm Pre 2, the chaps at WebOS Internals and Jason Robitaille of Canuck Coding were in need of such devices. As open source developers offering the vast majority of their wares at no cost to the public, as you may imagine their coffers aren’t exactly overflowing with funds.

Enter the Palm community, full of awesome members (that’s you, by the way) that organized an internet telethon to get the homebrew all-stars the money they’d need to buy the phones. In less than one month, the community managed to raise $8,732.52, more than enough to buy a developer Pre 2 for Jason and each of WebOS Internals’ fifteen staff members. The excess funds will be used to pay for server costs that result from hosting the popular homebrew tools, and may even be used down the line for buying next generation webOS devices *cough*PalmPad*cough* for testing.

Said Rod Whitby, WebOS Internals Project Lead:

“This community is awesome. 'nuff said.”

We couldn’t agree more. If you missed out on the telethon, it’s not too late to make your own contribution to support WebOS Internals.

As for everybody who contributed, we got the list from cantaffordit (thanks!) and will have a special surprise for you in the forums later today!

Donate to get more patches on webOS 2.0 [Video]

Dieter Bohn — Tue, 23 Nov 2010 15:48:57 +0000

As we mentioned in an update to our post yesterday, we have our first patches for webOS 2.0 available in Preware (including node.js javascript services). Sconix, Oil, and others have already got their patches up and running and in the above video you can see them installed. One nice thing with webOS 2.0: no need to reboot after enabling or disabling Developer Mode.

Preware and many of the most popular patches are developed and maintained by WebOS Internals. In order to get these patches and software working on webOS 2.0, more of the team is going to need to purchase the Unlocked Palm Pre 2 to develop on. To that end the PreCentral community has organized another telethon to support homebrew developers. The current target is $6,000 to purchase phones for the developers that need them. As of last Friday, based just off donations from people in our forums, they've already hit $4,200. That's pretty incredible when you think about it, but it's not quite at the goal yet.

So a small push is all that's needed to jump start the homebrew movement for webOS 2.0 and the Palm Pre 2. Anybody who donates more than $30 before December 1st will get to have their title in our forums changed to "Top Homebrew Supporter."

Go Donate

Backing up your application data/settings with Save/Restore (Homebrew)

Adam Marks — Thu, 18 Nov 2010 17:23:30 +0000

So you have finished all the levels on Angry Birds, have all your feeds set up in DrPodder and spent the better part of a week setting up Mode Switcher just right, but now it's time for you to swap out your phone for an upgrade or to run the webOS Doctor. You are worried that you will lose all the progress you made in your games or reset all of your system and application preferences, and for good reason. The Palm Backup app only backs up certain aspects of your Palm Profile (as documented on this Palm Support article), and none of your application data is included in that backup. Luckily, the geniuses at WebOS Internals created the Save/Restore app to backup that data.

You can refer to this PreCentral article on Save/Restore for more complete details on how to use the app, or continue reading after the break for some key notes about Save/Restore and the exact steps you should follow when backing up and then restoring your device.

Roundup: Top Rated webOS Tips

Adam Marks — Fri, 12 Nov 2010 17:43:17 +0000

In this edition of our Tip Roundup, we thought it would be a good idea to present the top tips as rated by you, the users. In case you haven't noticed, every tip includes a rating area on the bottom that allows you to give anywhere from 1 to 5 stars for that tip. So, please be sure to always rate the usefulness of the tips you read, so we can find the best ones to share in the future. Continue reading after the break to find out which tips took the top honors

WebOS Internals attempting the unpossible: webOS 2.0 FrankenDoctor for older devices

Derek Kessler — Fri, 05 Nov 2010 13:57:05 +0000

webOS 2.0 will be coming to Pre, Pixi, and Plus variant devices in “the coming months,” but if you’re like us, you want webOS 2.0 right now because you have the attention span of a... hey, who finished the ice cream? Thankfully, the masters of satisfying our impatience - the code genies at WebOS Internals - have decided that they don’t want to wait either.

With the release of the 2.0-restoring webOS Doctor for SFR’s Pre 2, Rod Whitby and the gang have taken to hacking and splicing the 2.0 Doctor with the already released webOS 1.4.5 Doctor. Yes, that's a gross oversimplification, but all the code gibberish is far over this author's head (as evidenced by my calling it gibberish). In essence, they’re setting out to make a webOS FrankenDoctor, with the aim of installing webOS 2.0 before Palm and carrier partners finally get around to releasing the update. Really, who wants to be at the mercy of Sprint and Verizon?

Right now it’s very raw. As in it’ll render your device unusable and possibly physically damaged. There’s a reason the forum post on the subject starts off in 24-point bold red type. But, if you’re of the super-geeky Linux inclination, capable of in-depth debugging, and feel like chancing a permanent bricking of your spare Pre (do not, I repeat, do not try this on your primary device), then feel free to join in. After all, it takes a village to make a Frankendoctor - or maybe the village chases and kills the Frankendoctor - never could get that straight. In any case, there are roadblocks to be overcome.

Just don't blame us if things go south in a hurry - if patching and kernels are homebrew, then this is, well, we don't know what to call this except for friggin' awesome.

Source: PreCentral Forums; Thanks to sketch42 for the heads up!