What's New in Palm Pre Homebrew Apps: Chess, Package Tracking, and Much More

While we're still waiting for more than 30 apps to appear in the official webOS App Catalog, our own homebrew forums now has over fifty apps to play around with.  They range from "Hello World" to a full-on chess app, and they're loads of fun.

With the official release of the Mojo webOS SDK to everybody, installing apps has gotten much simpler too.  Both Mac and PC users simply need to

1. follow Palm's installation instruction for the SDK
2. Put the Pre into Developer Mode (oh yeah, there's an app for that so you don't have to punch in the Konami Code every time.  Consider it your first install.)
3. Open up a command line terminal (it's not as scary as you think) and then use the palm-install command with the Pre plugged in to the computer (but not in USB mode).  More here.

Windows users have another option.  Forum member greg_roll has created a handy-dandy gui installer that is working for most people.  You can find a great tutorial on how to use it at webosinternals.org.

Notice that URL - the Pre Dev Wiki is moving over to webosinternals.org and is looking good. If you want to start developing and delving into the nitty gritty of the webOS, the webosinternals team are the the go-to people. On that same subject, rwhitby has posted up an excellent article explaining that the webOS is so open that it's not technically accurate to say that you have 'rooted' your Pre -- all you're really doing is accessing the Linux core of webOS in a way that Palm actually allows.

Ok, enough nerdcore - let's talk apps.  Here's a small sampling of what you can find in our Palm Pre Homebrew Apps Forum.  Note that all of this stuff is essentially beta, so if there's trouble just head back into the thread and have a chat about it.

• WxRad Animated Radar - After seeing the official Pre Weather app did you think that the Pre could not show animated radar? Well it can! And it can be full screen! Check out what pilot adsllc has done in his spare time!
• Chess - rboatright has been incredibly active in the developer forums and still has had time to bring a first draft of Chess to the Pre!
  
• PrePackage - A package tracking app that works with FedEx, UPS, USPS, and DHL from Arcticus.
• Blocked - oil brings us this classic game where you need to slide the red block out of the box by moving the rest of the blocks around. It even includes a puzzle designer!

Honestly, we're just scratching the surface here.  You owe it to your app-loving self to try some of these apps out.

Thanks to milominderbinder for putting together the list!