Our sister site, The iPhone blog, recently posted about Google’s new Wave technology and how it worked wonderfully as a WebApp for the iPhone.  Having recently set up my Wave account, one of the first things I did was to see how well it worked through Palm’s own WebKit based browser, hoping that a mobile page would be delivered when I visited the site. The result?

Not good as evidenced by the "Memory critical, too many cards!" dialog in the screenshot to the right.  I was served the desktop version, and attempting to load the desktop version caused the Pre’s browser to grind to an absolute crawl, which is to be expected of any smartphone currently on the market.

I suspect that a page optimized for the Pre’s browser is coming down the pipe sooner than later, but for those who can’t wait to get their mobile Wave on, there’s a solution: the Pre’s browser (using webOS Quick Install from our homebrew section) can be patched to have it report itself as Mobile Safari to any web server, which means you get the very same mobile page that’s delivered to the iPhone delivered to the Pre.

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Welcome to the third and last installment of "There’s a Patch for That!" Part 1 and Part 2 have already shown 28 of the top patches. Today we’ll be exploring more of these user patches (tweaks), including Calendar, Camera, Clock, and Email patches.  

Patches are modifications that add key features to existing Palm webOS applications. Maybe you wish you could change sounds or add a feature. Fortunately many of our Pre users are also talented developers who didn’t just wish for these fixes. They made them! Note that the Homebrew Apps are separate programs, not patches.

Again, patches can be installed using webOS Quick Install or Preware using these instructions.As always, the usual warnings apply.  You’re patching system webOS files, so stuff can break here. Plus the patching system is constantly evolving. For many Pre users, though, the risk is well worth the reward. (See: How to Revive a Pre.)

To remove a patch, click on the same patch again.  You can even remove all patches at once before an upgrade or any time you like. Using WebOS Quick Install, click Tools, Tweaks, "Online Repository" tab, and then install the Emergency Patch Recovery (EPR).  In Preware, install the Emergency Patch Recovery patch and restart your Pre to remove all patches. For much more see Patches.

And now for today’s patches…

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Welcome to the second installment of "There’s a Patch for That." Patches are modifications (tweaks) that add key features to existing Palm applications. For instance, have you wished for message forwarding or landscape mode for messaging, email, or PDF’s? Do you wish the Palm Pre webOS had other key features? Pre users have developed over 60 patches to make these and other wishes a reality!

In There’s a Patch for That (Part 1) we saw 14 of our favorite patches including the On Screen Keyboard, LED Notification, Launcher, and Email patches. Today we will explore patches that customize alerts and notifications, as well as the Messaging, Calendar, Contacts, and Phone Apps.   Note that the 250 Homebrew Apps are separate programs, not patches.  

Again, patches can be installed using webOS Quick Install (or Preware using these instructions). As always, the usual warnings apply.  You’re patching system webOS files, so stuff can break here. Plus the patching system is constantly evolving. For many Pre users, though, the risk is well worth the reward. (See: How to Revive a Pre.)

To remove a patch, click on the same patch again. You can even remove all patches at once before an upgrade or any time you like. Using WebOS Quick Install, click Tools, Tweaks, "Online Repository" tab, and then install the Emergency Patch Recovery (EPR).  In Preware, install the Emergency Patch Recovery patch and restart your Pre to remove all patches.   For much more see Patches.

Here are more of our favorite patches…

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webOS Quick Install 2.7 Main Tweaks Screen

The Palm Pre webOS 1.2.0 and 1.2.1 updates brought users 125 new features and improvements (and some issues). Now it is the Pre user community’s turn to give back. Users have developed dozens of patches (tweaks) including the On Screen Keyboard, landscape modes for Email and Messaging, plus upgrades for the Launcher, Sounds, Calendar, Contacts, and Phone.  Patches are modifications that add key features to existing Palm webOS applications.  Homebrew Apps are new programs.

The PreCentral forums are abuzz with brainstorming and testing while the patch source code and development are at webOS-internals.org. Patches can be installed using webOS Quick Install or Preware using these instructions. As always, we need to throw the usual warning and provisos up there: you’re patching system webOS files, so stuff can break here. For many Pre users, though, the risk is well worth the reward.  (See: How to Revive a Pre.)

To remove a patch, click on the same patch again.  You can remove all patches before an upgrade or any time you like. Using WebOS Quick Install, click Tools, Tweaks, "Online Repository" tab, and then install the Emergency Patch Recovery (EPR).  In Preware, install the Emergency Patch Recovery patch and restart your Pre to remove all patches.

Here are some of our favorite patches so far.

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We here at PreCentral know that a good many of you have applied all manner of tweaks to your phones to boost the functionality of the Pre. We don’t blame you. We know Palm’s been listening: webOS 1.2 is right around the corner. Right now we don’t know for certain how all of those hacks and tweaks will work with the update, so to remove any chance of confusion we have to unequivocally recommend that you remove all tweaks before applying any update to webOS. When we say all, we mean all, no matter how innocuous you may think the tweak to be. We are doing the same – we don’t want to risk a bricked Pre any more than you do.

If you’ve installed tweaks via webOS Quick Install you can easily remove your tweaks by opening the Tweaks dialog (under the Tools menu) and then unchecking each option. You will have to wait for Luna (the Pre’s GUI) to restart after each change, so be patient if you’ve installed a lot tweaks.

For those that have installed quilt patches, webOS-internals.org has instructions on how to remove the patches.

And lastly, if you’ve installed patches via PreWare (such as the virtual keyboard), you can actually remove those same patches with PreWare. Just open the Patches menu, select the patch, and then tap remove.

If you have installed homebrew apps they should be fine for the update. It is possible that webOS 1.2 may break an app’s functionality, but since these apps don’t change system files they shouldn’t interfere with installing or running the update. Even apps that install services or plugins (like PreWare or the LED Flashlight app) shouldn’t cause problems.

Now, tech gods forbid, should your Pre get screwed up beyond recognition, it’s thankfully near impossible to completely brick a Pre. For you, there’s always the Palm webOS Doctor. With it you can essentially reflash the phone with a stock webOS install and start from scratch.

Since friends don’t let friends brick their phones, we want you to repeat after us: I will remove all tweaks before I update.

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