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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It’s a solemn act taken up after every update to webOS: reapplying all of your patches. While things have gotten to be significantly easier since the advent of Auto-Update Patch Technology (otherwise known as AUPT), there’s still some work that needs to be done. Or at least, some clarification.

So here’s the deal, as explained by WebOS Internals’ Rod Whitby: AUPT makes things easier for the end-user, but patience is still needed. As with webOS 1.3.5 and webOS 1.4, the version of webOS 1.4.1 that was pushed to users was different than the version distributed earlier to developers. While it’s not a major difference, the numerical difference is enough that the patches the WebOS Internals crew had prepped for release were no longer registered.

AUPT works like this: A log of your installed patches is stored on the device, when you perform a webOS update, Preware then references that log and redownloads the patches. If a patch hasn’t yet been ported to the new webOS version, then a dummy placeholder patch is downloaded merely to stand in place for when the update is made available. When the different version of webOS 1.4.1 was shipped and users attempted to reapply patches before they had been reverified, they simply downloaded a bunch of placeholders. A word of advice: don’t panic and doctor your phone the next time webOS is updated and none of your patches work. It takes time for the patches to be checked against the new version, and even then your favorite patch may end up broken.

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It’s something we’ve mentioned before on PreCentral, and it’s something that Palm has promised to address. That something is webOS’s inability to download OS updates over anything other than what it thought to be a “high-speed” connection, i.e. Wi-Fi or 3G. For those who live in areas with poor or nonexistent 3G coverage, Wi-Fi is usually still an option. If you happen to have a Pixi, you’re up a creek without an updated paddle.

While webOS 1.3.5 brought the ability to download future webOS updates over slower 2G cellular wireless, users stuck on older versions of webOS were, well, stuck. Palm is changing that now, and offering the solution in a surprising package: an app. Available now in the Palm App Catalog is a new app: Palm 2G Update.

Built to work with webOS 1.3.1 or webOS 1.3.2, Palm 2G Update is a unique solution to a problem that has frustrated many Pixi owners cursed by poor network coverage (and the handful of Pre owners in similar situations with no Wi-Fi access). The app is itself an update to webOS and installs as such. After downloading, all the user has to do is open the app, tap Start, wait for the phone to launch, and then the Install Now button for the update. Once the update is finished they’ll be able to download future webOS updates (like webOS 1.4) with ease of the slow variety so long as they have a connection to their carrier’s data network.

Palm 2G Update is available now in the App Catalog as a free download. There are two separate versions, one for the Pre and one for the Pixi.

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Owners of Palm Pre phones on Bell, your time has come. webOS 1.3.5.1 is now available for your over-the-air downloading pleasure and brings all of the webOS 1.3.5.1 goodness to the great white north. Interested in what you’ll find in this latest webOS version? Check out our posts on webOS 1.3.5 and webOS 1.3.5.1 for more, or just check out the full changelog after the break.

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webOS 1.3.5 is upon us! It brings with it a new way of handling apps.

For the non-nerds, er, non-homebrewers: the big news here is that Palm is now storing apps in a new place – the USB partition – so you are limited only by the 8 gigs of onboard storage. Install away, friends! While you’re at it, rejoice in the knowledge that the Official App Catalog is no longer tagged "Beta." Now we’ve hit the big time.

We’re also pleased to see that the App Catalog can download apps in the background so you don’t need to sit and stare at the progress bar anymore. Also, all Official App Updates are now handled within the App Catalog instead of showing up both there and in the Updates app. The Updates app still checks for app updates, but it sends you to the Catalog to download them.

There were a few hiccups, though. Willxcore lost his paratrooper high scores and there may have been other apps whose preferences and other metadata may have been lost. Major bummer, but not much we can do at this point.

As always, our forums have the latest information. Here’s the Official webOS 1.3.5 Issues thread. If you’re feeling down, you can find plenty of cheer in the Official webOS 1.3.5 New Features and Changes thread. As with every webOS update, there are lots of hidden features and tweaks that aren’t on the official changelog, so definitely hit that thread.

After the break, we’ll explain the janky photoshop above and we’ll tell you what homebrewer and patchers need to do to get their apps shuffled about to the right place.

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Remember that Need For Speed video from last month? There was a lot of consternation about whether or not it was legit, and the different App Catalog screenshots that PreCentral forum member Casperstar provided only threw fuel on the fire. It was different, from the layout to the background. But after the landing of webOS 1.3.5 we fired up the App Catalog and suddenly Casperstar was vindicated. The new App Catalog is an exact duplicate of the App Catalog that Casperstar showed us.

Combined with the base files for adding in GPU support that the WebOS Internals Twitter feed pointed us towards, we’re going to jump off the fence and say we’re almost entirely certain that the Need For Speed video is legit. So now we really want to see what Rubinstein is going to trot out on the stage at CES… 

In other words: serious OpenGL graphics, games, and apps are a real possibility. In case you missed it the first time around, the contentious video is after the break

Thanks to krische for the heads up!

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Our Palm Pre phones just lit up with the news: webOS 1.3.5 is now available for download. The update weighs in at just 13 MB, but that 13 MB brings a slew of bug fixes as well as the fixing of much-maligned app limit. We’re downloading it now, we’ll let you know what we find in a bit.

As a reminder to all patchers and themers: Be sure to remove all patches and themes before installing any webOS update. We don’t want you to end up with a wonky install. You do not have to uninstall Preware or any other homebrew apps – just the patches and and themes.

UPDATE [8:38]: Palm’s servers seem to be being hit pretty hard, it’s going slow here. In the meantime, Palm has posted the for both the Palm Pre and the Palm Pixi, and we’ve got it for you after the break.

Highlights:

• App limit fixed.
• App Catalog downloads continue even after leaving the app’s page.
• App purchases have been expanded to US territories (sorry Europe, Canada, etc).
• Switching between days in Calendar is now faster.
• Sprint Navigation can be launched from a Contact.
• Palm Profile app restores happen in the background, letting the user get to the phone faster.
• Future webOS updates can be downloaded over 2G wireless (1xRTT).
• Notifications now work in landscape mode (which has strangely lost the rounded corners).

UPDATE [9:06]: Cool, there’s now a progress meter on the install screen spinner doohicky. It’s slow going, but at least we can see that it’s going now.

Also, the install has added one more step in the form of ‘unpacking.’ Instead of downloading the entire OS over again, webOS updates now come in the form of binary deltas, which essentially boils down to downloading only the new code, which then must be ‘unpacked’

Additionally, the code genies over at WebOS Internals have dug into the update package and found some interesting stuff, notably opengles.ipk and opengles-omap3.ipk, which are part of the groundwork for enabling the GPU. Good times, coming right up!

UPDATE [9:27]: Preware appears to be broken in webOS 1.3.5. It’s throwing up an ‘OnFeeds Error’ and not even getting to load the feeds. Let’s hope this is a server-side fix.

UPDATE [9:45]: rem_kujawa notes that you can use WebOS Quick Install (make sure you have version 2.96) to remove both Preware and its Package Manager, reinstall, and you should be good to go.

UPDATE [11:12]: It seems that the app migration system Palm devised to move your stuff from the /var partition to the USB drive partition only moves App Catalog apps. All homebrew stuff has been left behind in /var. If you want to move homebrew apps to the new folder, you’re going to have to delete them and reinstall.

UPDATE [11:23]: It also seems that the migration utility doesn’t transfer some app data. For example, user data from Paratrooper was left behind and the game launches as if never played before with no saved scores or progress.

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We didn’t find it under the Christmas Tree on Friday like a certain PreCentral editor and the rest of us webOS fiends were hoping for, but this is close enough to count: the Sprint support website is saying that webOS 1.3.5 is to be released today, and that 1.3.5 is indeed the current version. 

Rubinstein mentioned during Palm’s Q2FY2010 earnings call that we’d be seeing the update around CES next month, so if the Sprint support website is to be believed, they’re free to announce something a little more exciting during their presentation… like announcing that Unreal Engine 3 has been ported over to webOS or some new hardware.

Here’s Sprint’s minimal changelog:

WebOS – 1.3.5
Build 194
Sprint Config – 2.0

12/28/2009

This update includes enhancements to the following:

• Improvement in battery life optimization when in marginal coverage areas.
• QCELP capability fix to allow play and audio of video sent via MMS.
• Launch Google Maps or Sprint Nav when tapping an address from contacts.
• Minimized package of MR size through binary difference. Customers can now download over 2G connections if necessary.

[via Engadget]

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Dear Santa,

I know you’re a busy guy and I really should have sent you this letter much earlier, but I know that if anybody could pull off the “Christmas miracle,” it’s you. I’ve tried my best to be a good blogger this year. I know sometimes I’ve aggravated my readers, but I said what I said because I thought it needed to be said. That’s being a good boy, right?

Anyway, I hope that you get this list before you take off from your North Pole base of operations. Below is a list of what I’d really really really like to see on Christmas morning. If it’s not there, I understand, but if it is I promise to be extra good next year. I’m not trying to be greedy, I just want you to know that there’s a lot of stuff that would make me happy. Snow, though one of those things, does not count in the gift tally.

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On today’s investor conference call, CEO Jon Rubinstein just confirmed that webOS 1.3.5 is coming soon and will have a bevy of improvements, including:

• Allowing for installation of more apps
• Enhances WiFi and app performance
• Improved battery life
• Increased speed and responsiveness on the Palm Pixi

We’re still listening in and hearing good things about what’s coming. Namely: Palm will showcase the Ares development platform and other developer initiatives at CES, they expect "thousands" of apps "in short order," and they have another set of marketing initiatives that they’re planning on unleashing soon. 

We’ll check back with some transcriptions shortly and will update this post with any news that sneaks into the Q&A.

Update: In response to a question, Rubenstein just noted that Palm doesn’t "believe in building large portfolios of products." In context it seems pretty clear that the priority for Palm right now is getting Pre and Pixi released on as many carriers as possible, not releasing some sort of magical new webOS tablet at CES: "[...] our objective right now is to expand with more carriers and more regions."

Update 2: After the break, quotes from CEO Jon Rubinstein on new carrier partners, why Palm is confident about the long term, on webOS 1.3.5, on opening the door to "thousands" of applications, and on Palm’s pace for introducing brand new products.

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