August 17th 2010 | Posted by
Derek Kessler
Okay, yeah, another light day. But it was Monday, and we can’t exactly fault people for not being fully into it on Monday, right? In other news, there is now Sims 3 for the Pixi, both US and Europe. Huzzah!
New apps:
- 3D Dice for Pixi, Free, by Karge Software. Roll dice on the screen with shake to roll functionality.
- Puzzle Paint 3D Lite, Free, by Thomas Schoeps. Twenty-level lite version of Puzzle Paint 3D; fill in the patterns with color blobs.
- The Sims 3 by EA, $7.99, by Electronic Arts. [Pixi] (North America, Europe) Endless hours of entertainment in the 3D circle of life that is The Sims.
Updated apps:
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March 1st 2010 | Posted by
Jonathan I Ezor
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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February 4th 2010 | Posted by
Jonathan I Ezor
Contrary to what Jason Robitaille wrote a few months ago, eReader may not be coming to webOS after all. jeffro77 reported the following recently in the PreCentral Forums that the eReader.com support folks wrote to say that "There are no plans to create a version of eReader that is native to the webOS platform."
While eReader as well as a webOS version of Mobipocket Reader have been eagerly hoped for by webOS e-book fans, particularly those of us who have previously purchased secure e-books from sites like Fictionwise and eReader.com (now sister sites, owned by Barnes & Noble) and read them on our previous Palm phones and PDAs, this news is disappointing but not disastrous. That’s because there is a growing number of e-book reader programs for the Pre and Pixi.
The most notable e-book application is homebrew graduate pReader by Jappus/MHWsoft, available for free in the App Catalog. pReader bypasses the current limits of the Palm SDK by converting e-books via the cloud [NOTE: CORRECTED] from their native format into a standard one readable by the Palm and Pixi, and the latest versions can decrypt most secure eReader and Secure Mobipocket format books. pReader is also great for unencrypted Mobipocket books, like those from the Baen Free Library or contained on the Baen CDs. The initial processing can be slow (although much faster than in its earliest homebrew versions) but once finished, books open quickly, and formatting and cover images are preserved. pReader is not the only choice for Pre/Pixi users seeking to do some reading. In the App Catalog, one can also find the free Shortcovers, which links to the Kobobooks.com (formerly Shortcovers.com) eBooks store/site, as well as the $4.99 Popelli Reader (also a homebrew graduate). For those users who use MotionApps’ Classic, the PalmOS versions of both eReader and Mobipocket Reader still work fine, including for secure e-books, which can be loaded either via USB mode or HotSync. One may also find unsecure e‑books in PDF, Word or HTML formats that can be read via the Pre’s browser and document viewers.
Still, one hopes that the note jeffro77 shared via the forum is not the last chapter in the eReader story, and that other e-book options (such as a Amazon Kindle client like that currently available for the iPhone and iPod Touch) become available especially after Palm releases its PDK this spring. For now, pReader is probably the most versatile of the webOS e-book readers, and given its price (free, that is), it can’t be beat on value.
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