Preware – The app that makes webOS the best mobile platform, period
iPhone! Android!! BlackBerry!!! WebOS!!!! Windows Mobile!!!!!
The mobile market is pretty darn crowded, and each platform states that it is THE BEST for one reason or another. Now, if I am being honest, each platform has its own strengths and weaknesses, including my obvious favorite webOS. Now the point of this article isn’t to explain these differences. Instead, I am going to put webOS at the head of the class squarely on the back of one app. Preware by WebOS Internals. Now that is a tall order, but I think that the app can stand up to the challenge.
Once I have explained my position I will give a brief walk-through of all the awesomesauce that is contained inside of Preware. Ready? Let’s begin.
This is me…this is me on my soapbox
Yesterday, in my interview with Preware creator Rod Whitby, Rod gave a pretty darn good overview of what Preware is and where it is headed. I will expound upon his overview in a bit, but first I need to state why I think this one app is so important to the world of webOS. It is important to note that what makes Preware so special is not how it does things but what it does and what it represents. Rod, and people like him, have created a single source where you can safely download a myriad of different goodies that can transform your webOS device in a thousand different ways.
“That’s not unique!”
I knew you were going to say that, and yes, you are right. Each mobile platform has some form of homebrew ecosystem. But you know what sets Preware and webOS apart from the others? Palm encourages it.
In no other case is the grand poobah company that is in charge of the platform so openly supported its developers and their homebrew efforts. With the iPhone you can “jailbreak” your phone, but Apple says it is illegal and has been trying to figure out a way to patch their system to prevent it from being possible. Android is open source, and therefore is sort of like the wild west. You can download apps from anywhere you want on Android…there really is no sheriff in town. Blackberry is a still getting their feet wet on the whole matter, and Windows Mobile (ole granpappy) is so segmented that it is really playing a different game altogether.
With webOS you have Palm not only supporting homebrew, but even talking and actively engaging the homebrew devs. Heck, they even plan to allow easy distribution of homebrew outside of the catalog. I think a large part of this is because of people like Rod Whitby. From early on, he and his team wanted to create a place where people could get patches, apps, and other goodies without worrying about malware and he has built the infrastructure for exactly that. When you have a group of people who are working to support the community rather than hack it and subvert it for personal gain, then it makes it much easier for the company in charge to come along side and aid the process along.
WebOS may be the newest (and the smallest) kid on the block , but with things like Ares and Preware and people like Dion and Brian, Chuq, and Rod Whitby, I think it is only a matter of time till developers hop on board in droves and really take the platform to a whole new level. I think we are already beginning to see that with the massive number of apps that are coming out every week (even taking out the whole Brighthouse Labs thing).
Let’s take a walk – Learning Preware
If you want to get on the Preware wagon, the first thing you have to do is install it. Now early on getting the app on your phone was a bit tricky, but nowadays they have everything laid out, nice and neat. Personally, I prefer the WebOS Quick Install method, but there are a couple of other ways as well if that doesn’t work out for you.
Now you have everything setup, you are almost ready to explore. When you first load up things it can take a little bit of time so be patient.
Once everything is loaded it can seem a bit daunting because there is so much delectable goodness in here. Let’s break it down a bit.
First you will see a menu with 4 options:
Package Updates: If you have homebrew apps on your system (or even some from the App Catalog), if they have an update, they will show up here. This is where the magical “Update All” button that Rod was talking about will appear in future version.
Available Packages: This is where all the goodies live. You will spend most of your exploration time in here. I will break this down a bit later.
Installed Packages: If you have added something to your phone (app, patch, etc), then it will show up here. This works well if you are trying to launch something or uninstall it.
List of Everything: This gets you one HUGE list of everything that is in Preware…no categories, no organization, just a big list. Now why is this useful? Searching. If you heard about a cool patch or app by name, you can pull up this big list and start typing to find it quickly. Now it is important to note that you can search from just about any place in the app, but it will only search through what is showing. If you are showing everything, then it will search everything. Very nice.
Available Packages
So the big number is under the heading Available Packages. If you click on that guy, you will see a huge list of stuff. Lets break down the categories a bit.
Applications
This is basically homebrew central. It is a veritable playground in here. Applications are the same sort of thing you find in the App Catalog…games, utilities, etc. Preware houses a lot of finished apps, but it is also a place where a lot of developers put beta versions of their apps so they can get some testing done. I believe there are close to 400 apps in the homebrew world right now so lots to see and do here.
Linux Application
If you are new to the homebrew scene you may want to skip passed this group. These are apps that tap straight into the linux core underneath webOS.
Optware
Again, this is a place for the advanced users. This is where you can find stuff like SSH, command line tools, GNU apps, etc. If I just started speaking another language, then keep on movin’.
Patch
Now patches are where things get exciting (to me anyway). Is there something about webOS that bothers you? Like, you can’t see the date unless you open your calendar? Or you want to see a percentage of how much battery you have left? How about getting rid of the annoying login screen that comes up all the time because of your connection to an exchange server? All of these things (and a whole lot more) can be updated with a patch.
These are different then apps because they actually change the way webOS does things (like the examples above show). What is great about them here is that they are easily removed through Preware. So if you don’t like the new calendar you fixed up, then you can set it back the way it was with a simple click. Nothing scary to worry about.
Plugin
Plugins go where apps can’t. These little guys go deeper into the SDK to accomplish feats that just can’t be done in Javascript. There is only one of these right now (Terminal Services browser), but I am sure there will be more over time.
Service
Services again go outside the norm. If you are building an app, you use the software development kit (SDK) to use the various services that Palm provides you (alarms, phone, etc.). It is possible to create your own service that can be used to expand the capabilities of your phone. Right now there is an IRC client in here.
Theme
Themes are how you make your phone pretty. If you have been watching my reviews, you have probably noticed that my phone doesn’t look the same as most Pre’s. The most noticeable thing is that my icons are not standard. I also have a different login screen, phone screen, etc. All this is done through applying themes. There are lots of different themes for all different interests (the one I use is called “Buuf”). Sports, movies, complete randomness…if you have an interest, there is probably a theme.
Unknown
As Rod mentioned in the interview, “if you have packages in the Unknown section, then you’ve forgotten to enable the “Fix Unknown Types” preference (this will be enabled by default in a future version of Preware).”
Things to keep in mind with Preware.
- Everything is free. Right now there is nothing that has a price tag so feel free to try anything that sounds interesting.
- Everything is safe. Rod and team are very diligent when it comes to malware and software that can do bad things (like store a password and send it off somewhere to be used later). You can be sure that if it is in Preware, it has been thoroughly checked for viruses, trojans, and other nastiness.
- Everything is detailed. Every package, app, theme, etc. comes with a description telling you about it. Read these. There is always important information here. This is especially true with patches as some patches can be a bit risky. The vast majority of patches are completely harmless (i.e. changing your battery to show a %), but there are a few that can be a bit risky (i.e. there use to be one that overclocked your phone…it has since been discontinued). These riskier patches are clearly marked and explained. You have no excuse if your phone dies because you are too lazy to read the warnings.
I love Preware, and I am not shy about it. The guys behind the app are top notch, and are doing a great service for the webOS community. If you happen to meet one of these guys in person, buy him a beer. He’s earned it.
I hope this little walkthrough has gotten you at least a little bit interested in trying out Preware. If you still have questions, please feel free to shoot me a line and I will do my best to answer them.
