About

“We waste our time, so you don’t have to”.

June 6th, 2009…a few brave souls and I walked into the Raleigh Sprint store at 8am to pick up some of the first Palm Pre phones on the market (I got the second to last one in the store…whew). Shortly after almost cutting my finger off (not really), I fell in love with webOS and the Pre.

As the apps began to come out (both official and unofficial), it became apparent that there was a need to separate the good apps from the…not so good. People just don’t have time, or money to waste on apps that are poorly built, buggy, or just plain useless.

Enter webOSroundup.

The slogan for this site (shown up top) pretty much sums up the goal here, but if you want to get a bit more formal, here is our mission statement.

The mission of webOSroundup is to be the primary destination for developers and consumers of Palm smartphones and the webOS framework. Our focus is four fold:

  1. Provide consumers with the tools needed to find the apps that are best suits their needs with reviews and our catalog site
  2. Help new customers learn how to get the most out of their device with educational articles
  3. Aid developers by providing a platform to show off their hard work and get the attention they deserve
  4. Provide news and analysis to encourage and grow the webOS community

What are your thoughts on expedited and paid reviews?

Integrity is the cornerstone for any review site. If the site doesn’t have any, then its reviews are worthless. We are constantly working to build the webOSroundup brand as one of honesty and fairness. To that end, here are our thoughts on paid reviews.

  • We do not get paid to do reviews. Our reviews are always fair and honest and are never affected by whether or not the developer is a sponsor. To be completely transparent, we do offer our sponsors the opportunity to pay for an article/walk-through, but these are not reviews. Sponsored articles are always clearly marked and contain no recommendations. They simply explain what the app does and gives an overview of how it works. If a review of a sponsored app is created, then it will always be written by a different author than the person who wrote the sponsored article.
  • We do not allow for expedited reviews. The timing of a review is completely up to the editors and reviewers themselves. We do not offer sponsors the ability to pay for a faster review.

Who is behind the curtain?

David Baxter – Founder, “Lead Cat Herder”

David is a software developer, web technologist, and all around fan of all things geeky. He owns a small web development company called Visionary Online that is based in Raleigh, North Carolina. When  not obsessing over his Pre or building a website, he can usually be found in one of three places:

  • With his lovely wife and two children
  • At church
  • In front of the tv playing  Xbox 360 (or perhaps his computer…)

Dan Ramirez – Senior Editor, “King of the webOS Twitterverse”

Dan has not provided me with his blurb so I am going to use this time to poke fun at him. Let’s see…Dan is a doctor who likes cheese, sniffing smelling salts, and checking himself for allergies. He is obsessed with his Pre and he tweets a lot…and I mean A LOT…but he is a really nice guy who writes well so we plan on keeping him. Before joining webOSroundup, Dan was the creator of the Palm fansite, TotallyPalmed.

Roy Sutton – News Editor, “App Dude and Grammar Ninja”

Roy has been active in the Palm developer community since just after the Palm Pre was released.  He has been a mobile developer for far longer than the term ‘mobile computing’ has been around.  During the day, he develops software and systems for barcode and RFID data collection.  He has published two apps for webOS and has several more in the pipeline.  He was formerly editor at Pre 101.

Anthony Honciano – Reviews Editor, “Video Guru”

Anthony has been a techie-guy since he was 12 years old, when he broke his dad’s 386 (yes,386) D.O.S. based computer. After that historic moment, he focused on his interest for computers which lead him to the Academy of Art University as an Online Help Desk [Tier 2] Technician. His main hobby is digital animation; this involves 3D modeling apps (still learning) & Adobe CSx suites. For those who are curious, he primarily uses Premier Pro, After Effects and Photoshop.

On a personal front Anthony is outgoing and goofy. He has a  big imagination (which is why he got into digital animation). When he’s not doing something technical, you’ll most likely find him outside with the family or singing “Purple Rain” on the karaoke machine.

Other contributors

  • Ryan St. Andrie
  • Brad Shedwick
  • Jesse Mendoza
  • Cliffton Thomas
  • Tim Stiffler-Dean