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.

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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!

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PreCentral community member Sconix, who has already wowed webOS 1.4.5 homebrew users with the Advanced Configuration for System Preferences and Advanced Configuration for App Launcher mega-patches, is readying the next set of Advanced Configuration patches for installation under webOS 2.0. These patches, which can already be seen as placeholders in webOS Internals’ webOS Patches feed, will provide a variety of new customization options for webOS 2.0. Hit the source link for details on Sconix’s work on Advanced System Menus: Framework, App Menu, Mode Menu, Today Menu, Device Menu, and Power Menu!

Source: PreCentral Forums

UPDATE: As WebOS Internals chief Rod Whitby noted on Twitter, the Advanced System Menus – Device Menu, contains what turns out to be the first new homebrew JavaScript service for webOS. As you may have head, webOS 2.0 is doing away with Java, and thus the homebrew Java services developed over the past year won’t be functional in the new OS. But, there’s now support for both C services and JavaScript services. Sconix’s new patches now include JavaScript services written with node.js to do fun stuff like trigger the LED flash as a flashlight.

Source: WebOS Internals (Twitter)

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See that above? That’s a Pre 2 with a EVDO connection running on Sprint.

What now?! See, there was a serious Oprah moment here at Palm developer day – everybody at DevDay got a unlocked Palm Pre 2 in the "Raffle." Naturally, the first thing they did was get to hacking it. Rod Whitby of WebOS Internals took the radio / back portion of the Sprint Pre, married to the front of a Pre 2 (where the Processor, memory, screen, and keyboard live) to create the ultimate FrankenPre: a Palm Pre 2 running on Sprint.

Of course, such surgery requires some serious hacking – pulling the carrier tokens that uniquely identify the Sprint device and all the carrier-customizations from the Sprint 1.4.5 webOS Doctor, then mash them into webOS 2.0 using the MetaDoctor. It’s magical, folks, but it also ain’t easy or cheap – you’ll be sacrificing two devices to make one Pre 2 on Sprint that is the furthest thing from warrantied possible.

So it can be done, it has been done – the unlocked GSM Palm Pre 2 can be ripped apart and married to a Sprint Pre to create a Palm Pre 2 running on the Sprint network. Kudos all around but we remind you: don’t try this at home. You might wait and see if WebOS World is going to get in the game of breaking warranties and providing this service someday. In the meantime, check out the photo gallery of the whole sordid affair after the break!

By the way, WebOS Internals is currently holding a Telethon so that they can buy developer phones for all the fine folks working on their hacking team. If you haven’t, it’s time to go donate so that magical hackery like this can continue on webOS 2.0.

Update: we meant it when we said don’t try this at home. Right now WebOS Internals can get it to work with a new Palm Profile, but it’s still bugging out a bit with existing profiles. It’s also not clear if it will work with future Palm webOS Over-The-Air updates. We also should say again: no more warranty. Developing (literally!), we’ll update you when we hear more.

read more

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Rod Whitby of WebOS Internals gave a brief overview of webOS Homebrew development today at webOS Developer Day. It was a nice walk down memory lane – from the heady days in 2009 when we went from the release of the Palm Pre to root to our very first patch (adding pages to the launcher) in 16 days.

Looking ahead, Whitby details three features they intend to add to their Preware universal installer. The first and most exiting is they intend to make it "Instant On." Currently when you load Preware it needs to scan and parse all of the downloaded feed files. In the future they hope to utilize the db8 features in webOS 2.0 to more dynamically and quickly load content as you search for it. Second up, that db8 feature will also allow the app to more easily sync to a database in the cloud, meaning it will be able to update in the background. Lastly, they’ll add more features to support reading app reviews and also provide more fine-grained geographic controls so users in various countries can decide which apps appear in Preware.

WebOS Internals is also working on getting their other apps compatible with webOS 2.0, creating custom kernels, helping other developers update their patches for webOS 2.0, they hope to get wIRC into the App Catalog, and plenty more.

Looks like good stuff. We also can’t help but note that it’s still pretty incredible to us that Palm brought out folks like Rod Whitby from the Homebrew community to speak at their Developer Day. 

Update: @webosinternals has posted the slides from his presentation PDF form.

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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!

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Palm Pre owners have been enjoying ridiculous overclocking benefits for some time now, while our Pixi-toting friends have been left to look in from the outside. Thanks to the work of WebOS Internals, that’s changing, with the possibility of the 600MHz Qualcomm MSM7627 processor hitting up to 900MHz. This is all thanks to, of all groups, the Android community’s hacking of the LG Ally, which uses the same processor. Who says we can’t all just get along?

Rod Whitby of WebOS Internals let us know that they’re still working on getting the overclocked Pixi kernel up to its full potential, but a recent teaser screenshot posted on their Twitter feed shows they’ve already broken the 800MHz barrier. Homebrew developer WartHog Kernel is taking the lead on development, which bodes well for the Pixi kernel. Further testing is in order, and for that more Pixi devices are needed.

As always, WebOS Internals provides all of their awesome kernels, services, and patches free of charge to the community, relying on your donations to stay in business. In particular, they’re looking for donations to help finance the purchase of a few Pixi devices to give the new kernel a thorough testing. So if you haven’t donated before (or are a Pixi owner with dreams of overclocking dancing through your head), head on over and give a few bucks to further the awesomeness they bring.

Thanks to Rod for the heads up!

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There are a lot of patches for webOS, but after awhile the most popular ones tend to become apparent until the good folks who create them turn them into ‘Advanced’ patches with lots of configuration options – to the point where they almost feel like full-fledged apps.

Such is the case with Advanced Configuration for App Launcher by Sconix. It basically makes all other Launcher patches unnecessary by offering darn near all of the as configurable options. Want to set the number of icons in a row and their spacing? Check. Want to add pages, name them, and manage their order? Check. Want to hide the QuickWave Launchbar? Check. It’s the kind of patch that makes you want to donate to WebOS Internals.

Be sure to remove other Launcher-related patches before you install it then spend some time tweaking your settings. You’ll be glad you did. New to patching and homebrew? No worries – this how-to article will get you started.

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The latest update of Preware (now at version 1.3.6)  allows users to install an application directly from a web URL, email attachment, or even from a file stored locally on the device itself.  This was a feature that was native to webOS back as far as version 1.0 — it was used in the very early days of the webOS homebrew scene to deploy applications in lieu of an official Software Developer Kit — but Palm plugged what could have been a potential exploit in subsequent releases.  Besides installing applications directly from email and website URLs, users can also use the excellent Neato! app to send links directly into Preware from the desktop, similar to Palm’s own send-to-phone feature.

Also included in the update is the ability to configure webOS to recognize Preware as the default application in handling the installation of apps from outside sources, a host of security conscious dialogs and prompts that are displayed to users when installing applications and changing file associations (It’s always recommended, of course, that you only install software from trusted feeds and trusted developers) and a good handful of bug fixes and performance optimizations.

When asked why webOS Internals went ahead with implementing this feature in the Preware thread in the webOS Internals forum, founder Rod Whitby noted that since Palm effectively changed its security model with the rollout of webOS 1.4.0, the group was unable to maintain package security how they had in the past. Rather than allow folks to "have a false sense of security", the change was made in order to best "educate the homebrew community against rogue attacks".

This is all very slick stuff, as this added functionality makes the "sideloading" of apps in webOS one of the easiest endeavors of all of the mobile platforms. If you dig the work of the webOS Internals group don’t be shy about sending them a donation.

And for those who are new to the world of homebrew, be sure to check out our getting started with homebrew guide and take look at the possibilities of device customization and performance enhancements made available by programs like Preware.

Discussion: PreCentral Forums

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It’s been in testing for several weeks, but now the unsuspecting public can get a taste of what 1GHz overclocking feels like on a Palm Pre. In short, it’s blazingly fast, even notably so over the 800MHz overclock. The overclocking comes in the form of the revised webOS kernel UberKernel, now up to version 1.4.x-92.

Accompanying the new UberKernel is a revised Govnah (v 0.6.7) to manage the overclocking madness. As usual, there’s plenty of options available to the end user, though our favorite remains screenstate overclocking; the phone ramps up to your maximum when the screen is on, and when off – when you’re not using it – the processor is scaled back down to a more reasonable and battery-saving speed.

Of course, while UberKernel and Govnah have undergone extensive testing to ensure that they won’t harm your device, overclocking is a try-at-your-own-risk activity. Palm and the carriers neither support nor condone overclocking; Palm has gone so far as to note that overclocking may void your warranty, so if it does fry your phone, you may be SOL. That said, the extensive testing done by the fantastic folks at WebOS Internals hasn’t revealed any glaring problems, so it’s full steam (literally?) ahead on the overclocking express.

Both UberKernel and Govnah are available through Preware, and as they are both open source endeavours from WebOS Internals, they are free. Oh, and because they’re free and open source, WebOS Internals is dependent upon your donations to pay for the testing hardware, servers, and everything else they need to keep the awesome operation running. If you’re enjoying the benefits of overclocking and you haven’t donated yet, then you’re wrong.

Source: WebOS Internals, PreCentral Forums

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