dchoung

Palm's webOS has been out for nearly a year now, and in that time period a few really standout apps have come to the fore. These apps have been distinguished not only for their usefulness, but also in some cases for their combination of usefulness and style.

drPodder- $.99

I stopped listening to podcasts a while ago. My routine usually began with seeing what I could download off of iTunes, then either listen to it off the computer or transfer it to the iPod. I always thought this whole process was a bit cumbersome so eventually I just let the whole thing go.

Jump forward to a few days ago and I'm seeing someone suggesting drPodder on the Pre. Thinking about it, the main issue for me was the process to get the podcasts, but not the podcasts themselves. So I bought the app (Currently at $.99 I believe) and took it for a whirl. I was not disappointed.

With this app I had the seamless kind of process that was so lacking with my previous iTunes experience. In most cases I could find my desired feeds through a search function, but also there was the option to enter a direct feed. Thanks to the Pre's wifi I would be able to stream most of the podcasts, not having to worry about storage issues and such.

With this app my faith in the podcast is once again renewed.

Evernote- Free

Admittedly, the Palm Pre is severely lacking as far as note-taking. The included post-it style app seems to be mainly for quick jots that are meant to be discarded within the span of a day.

Enter Evernote. I've never heard of these guys until I got my Pre. Thank goodness they decided to take an early plunge and make an app for webOS! What this app does is nothing short of providing a full cloud-based note-taking solution.

For example, if you make a note on your Palm with Evernote, you can also check it online or on their desktop app, and vice versa. You will never go without your notes! Well, there is one caveat... you need an internet connection to access them.

Currently, on webOS, Evernote doesn't use local storage (meaning it doesn't save data to your phone), it only saves it to the cloud. Hopefully that will change soon, despite that though it's still one of the best note-taking apps available on webOS.

NewsRoom- $4.99

I love RSS feeds. I've tried a good number of feed readers on the desktop, but up until now haven't run into anything that I thought worked so well on webOS. NewsRoom changes all that. More then serving up feeds in a typical list-style layout, the developer(s) have seen fit to integrate feeds into an easily navigable interface.

Here's an example, say I bring up cnn.com's news feed. I don't just see the last 15 items in a simple list. I start off with a mini-card that shows the very last item, then as I swipe left I see the next item, and so on. If I want to go back to the main screen where I can see all my feeds, I just swipe up, or use the back gesture. I think an appropriate word for the whole interface is 'slick'. It is very slick.

You'll hardly notice any webOS UI elements because they've all been customized. The whole app has a slightly polished feel that seems to be lacking in a lot of webOS apps right now. Of course it gets points for style.

This is probably the priciest app on my list at $4.99. If you're a heavy feedreader such as myself it's worth it. If not, well, it's still pretty.

YouView- $3.99

Visual voicemail is something currently not available to a native webOS device. Personally, I doubt that too many people are pining over this feature, but what if you could get it anyway? Thanks to Synctactix you can! YouView is their solution. It basically takes any phone calls not answered by you, and then processes the calls so that if there's a voicemail to be gotten, they'll get it, and then email you or text you saying that you've got a missed call, and/or a voicemail.

With the YouView app you get to see the voicemail they've stored for you, in a list, along with information on the person that called, when they called, and a few other options.

Overall it' a pretty useful tool, and at $3.99 for what they're offering it doesn't seem like such a bad solution.

Tweed- $2.99

This app is one of my quick launch icons. I think I check it more then my email. This might be a testament to Twitter itself rather than Tweed. But still, Tweed is a great Twitter app that doesn't get in my way when I'm searching tweets or posting one.

Honorable mentions:

Facebook- Free

This app was developed by a team of Palm's own. If you're a Facebook user it's a must.

Foursquare- Free

Conditions for this app apply same as the Facebook one. If you're a user then you should get it. If not, it's a good example of a webOS app.

That's the list so far, remember it's not definitive, but these are definitely some of the best!

By the way, you can check all these apps on the App Catalog on your webOS device, in case you were wondering...