Since Bell launched the Palm Pre last week, us Canadians have had the opportunity to have a taste of what Palm’s new App Catalog is all about. Actually the number of official apps has increased by about 40% in 7 days… the number sounds incredibly high but you have to remember that we started off with just shy of 30 approved apps.
With a total of now 50 official available apps to date, the App Catalog is still in Beta and is being rolled out slowly. There are actually far more apps (well over 170) “homebrew apps” that other people have developed and can be installed on your Pre at your own risk of course.
When it comes to using the App Catalog it’s very simple to use. It’s broken up into several parts and can be viewed several ways:
“Featured” and “Popular” that highlights a number of apps that are one’s to consider downloading or based on user feedback have a good rating. In addition you can view by several categories such as Most Recent, Top Rated, Entertainment, Lifestyle, Utilities, Productivity, Games, News, Food, Travel, Business and Social Networking.
To download and app all you have to do is select the desired app and tap to download. Once finished it asks you to “Tap to Launch”. That’s it, pretty easy. When an update has been made by the creator of the app you’ll notice a blue arrow appear in the App Catalog on the app. All you have to do to update is tap on the app. Again, pretty easy.
There is one downfall to the App Catalog. Apart from only having 50 apps, there are some apps included that us Canadians cannot download. Pandora is not available here in Canada, nor is the DirectTV NFL. A bit frustrating when you see it included and it let’s you know an error has occurred.
With the Palm App Catalog you have to be patient. There will be new apps and new features as the webOS platform develops, and more importantly as developers begin to infiltrate it with paid apps. Until then, it will be a “work in progress”.
Check out the video below… remember to put your name in to win a Palm Pre in our Palm Pre Giveaway!
MobileSyrup may earn a commission from purchases made via our links, which helps fund the journalism we provide free on our website. These links do not influence our editorial content. Support us here.
