So the other day, our friend Phil McKinney mentioned during one of his keynotes that a while back he threw out a challenge to all 47,000 engineers at HP to create webOS apps. His inbox was flooded and in no time he had tons and tons of apps (he stopped counting at 750). So where are these apps?
Well, apparently they are on their way (some of them at least). Today HP’s first “official” app is out. It is called “World Time”. It isn’t gonna change the world, but it is a nice effort at a clock that lets you see what time it is anywhere in the world.
Now this isn’t without a bit of irony, as @benfysh mentioned in a recent tweet:
Oh the irony HP’s first app in the @Palm app cat not available in the UK and its a world time clock!
All joking aside, it is nice to see HP getting behind webOS. Looking forward to the other 749.
I thought it was funny that the screenshot they chose for the App catalog shows the app running in the emulator.
Heh…didn't notice that. Too funny.
Looks like it was developed to fit the Pixi's screen. The background get titled on the Pre.
I just hope HP is selective in what it releases. Part of the success of devices is due to the development community.
Isn't there more apps from HP in the catalog? I downloaded one yesterday called Catch me that said it was from HP.
There are a few in the beta feed that you can see through Preware and App Scoop, this one is the first to enter the official catalog.
Unfortunately that one also isn't available in the UK
The App isn't available not only in UK, also the German App Catalog says: not available in this country.
…and let's hope this isn't a preview of things to come – I had hoped that under "global player" HP the regional restrictions would be reduced to the necessary minimum – and in this app at least, HP has made them grotequely tight!
I believe there is more then one app from HP out there. I downloaded one that said it was from HP called Catch me yesterday.
Really wish you could search the app catalog by business name.
There is another from HP Labs called Gloe which connects to their new experimental Gloe 'game'. I don't really understand how the app works myself, yet, but the site for it looks cool.
Keep in mind that these apps were part of a time-limited contest. The apps were written by a wide variety of HP employees, not all of which were engineers. The expected quality of the apps should be on par with other homebrew software that was written in a 2 week time-period.
I'd guess that 99% of the apps submitted were from folks that don't own any Palm devices, which is why all of the screenshots you'll see are from the emulator. Part of the motivation for HP employees participating in this contest was to get a free Palm Pre.
Great thoughts. Kudos to you.