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 Originally Posted by Bostonkiter
I bought the Pre for its functionality prowess over the iphone. Does anyone who's not in IT feel lost with the "root" "ipk" "developer mode" jargon? Dude, I just want to go into the App Catalogue and get the apps I want on my phone! Homebrew? Are you serious! I don't have the time, expertise or desire to download the thing to run the thing that allows the other thing to do what I should be able to do from my phone out of the box. Period. Is it just a matter of time for Palm to load up the App Catalogue?
In short, you don't have to do any of those things or use any of the jargon. You can do exactly what you said you'd like - you can go to the App Catalog and get the apps that you want from there. Yes, it's pretty limited right now, but it works. And the answer is, yes, it's just a matter of time for Palm to load up the App Catalogue. It's still in beta, and the SDK (Software Developers Kit, in non-geek-jargon) was only released to the general public about 3 weeks ago.
Now that the basic questions are answered, I'll take a few minutes to address a broader issue - you've bought more than a phone, you bought a very powerful, very open smartphone.
You made the comment - about downloading "the thing to run the thing that allows the other thing to do what I should be able to do from my phone out of the box". I'm a little confused about this. The phone does everything it's advertised to do out of the box. While "what you should be able to do" is probably subjective, objectively it works as advertised out of the box. The built in apps work, the Apps Catalog allows you to easily download, install, and update add on apps, and Palm is updating the Pre more frequently, powerfully, and faithfully than any smartphone I've seen to date.
It appears that you want the full power of the device, want it now, and want it to be easy for a casual user. Unfortunately, that's just not a realistic combination. There will be a ton of apps eventually, probably even soon, that can be downloaded from the Apps Catalog. Most of them will probably be fee based, and the development cycle for them will be longer. Homebrew apps are beta, free, and usually have issues ranging from minor glitches to major bugs.
And no, you don't need an IT degree, or even be an IT professional to do these things. But you do have to make a choice.
- Take the "casual user" approach, and use the Apps Catalog. The drawbacks are that you will have to wait, and then you will (likely) have to pay.
- Become more of a "serious user". Talk to some of the folks on here, you'll find that many will be very helpful in helping you get the File Coaster loaded on your Pre, which will give you access to the 75+ and growing list of apps available here. It's amazingly simple to use once it's installed. I suspect that would keep you satisfied for a while.
- Get in to the guts of the device and become more of a "power user". Unlike older smartphones (the Treos, Windows Mobile systems, and BlackBerries), and even the newer Apple iPhones, the Pre has a very open OS, and is easier for non-programmers to get into some of the more interesting aspects of it. This is probably farther than you want to go, but I mention it because it is one of the appealing things about the Pre. Even if you're not going to go that far, browse Main Page - WebOS Internals and look around to get an idea of some of the things that the open nature of the Pre makes possible.
Seriously, I hope you get a little more gutsy with your Pre and go with option 2. You'll find it's a lot more fun to use, and makes the "waiting" a lot easier.
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Palm doesn't expect you to do that. It's a new phone and in time more and more apps will become available, from the app store ans that's what Palm expects, for users to get apps from there.
