Web Designer and Developer
WebOS
News Republic for WebOS
Feb 11, 2012
It turns out that WebOS app beggars can be choosers, when selecting the right news app. I have officially replaced USA Today with a new goto news app for my Touchpad, News Republic. I like it so much that I even put it along the static app area on the bottom of the screen. USA Today wasn’t a bad app to use. It’s just that News Republic offers more categories, more stories, longer stories with more pictures, more up to date news and an overall slicker interface. That is saying a lot considering the USA Today app has been around for as long as the Touchpad and I want to say that it even came pre-installed on my Touchpad. It always left more to be desired though. The USA Today app always felt like a limited version of the popular newspaper I’d find waiting for me at my hotel room door while News Republic feels like an incoming feed of news that gets updated as soon as the story is released to the public and deemed appropriate for this app. Preferences are currently limited and they will probably stay that way but that doesn’t worry me.
Video Flood HD: Streaming Video on the Touchpad
Jan 16, 2012
Yesterday I checked out Video Flood HD, a streaming video player for Touchpad. Instead of individually going to your favorite websites with streaming video content such as ABC Family, CBS & Fox, Video Flood HD gathers them into one app for an easy way to view them. All of the big streaming sites are here including many of the smaller ones you’ve never heard of before. In fact, Video Flood HD is a good way to find some of the web shows without a big budget but that are just as entertaining and boil down to specific genres you may be interested in. I never knew Ben Heck had his own show! Another neat feature of this app is that it allows you to not only stream the videos but also download the content to your Touchpad. Add favorite shows to your favorites tab for easy access to them. You’re not just restricted to shows because there’s even a section for easy access to Hulu, Crackle and other movie websites. Overall a pretty cool app and reasonably priced at $1.99.
More @ HP.
Astraware Brings Solitaire To Touchpad
Jan 14, 2012
Astraware has extended support for the Touchpad by releasing Solitaire, a combination of 12 different card games. I downloaded Astraware Solitaire and I am impressed with the amount of fun I’m having. So far the games I’ve explored are my favorites from the past, Klondike, Golf and Pyramid. Over the past couple of months Astraware has also brought us Sudoku & Mahjong. I went to check out Astraware’s website and noticed that they posted something called The Touchpad Totalizer which is counter that displays how they will continue support as long as fans keep buying games for Touchpad. The next games on the list that are scheduled to come out are OddBlob and then Astraware Casino so keep buying those Astraware Touchpad games.
More @ The TouchPad Totalizer.
Radiant HD Arcade Game for WebOS
Dec 31, 2011
For fans of Space Invaders comes Radiant HD, a game from Hexage available on WebOS along with Android and iOS. Hexage has been very supportive of WebOS and has released many other games for the Touchpad including Totemo, Robotek, and Quell. Think of Radiant HD as a mash-up of a bunch of classic space shooter games combined into one.
The controls in the game are fantastic because instead of using awkward touch buttons that are difficult to locate, you simply tap the screen either on the left side or right side to control your spaceship. Firing is super easy because it’s automatically done for you. At first this may seem crazy but it actually works great because it lets you focus on where your bullets go. The graphics are also well done with vibrant neon colors and pixelated character shapes to bring that old-school game feel. The music is nothing special but suits the game well with its spacey way.
You get points for upgrades after killing certain enemies during level play. At the end of the level, you get to choose from upgrades that give you things like double guns and missiles which help you to perform better in the next levels. These weapons do well against the larger enemies and bosses throughout the 100+ levels of the game. The weapons include a Vulcan Cannon, Bio Blaster, Plasma Gun, Disruptor Laser, Seeking Missiles, and Smart Gun. If you are into classic arcade shooters, then I recommend Radiant HD. It is another game that will help build up your library of games on your Touchpad, a device with not a lot of support app-wise compared to Android and iOS.
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Flight Control Soars Into Your Touchpad
Dec 23, 2011
The great news is that the Touchpad now has Flight Control available to download. And I was right, this is a game that’s much easier and better to play on a tablet vs on a phone due to the amount of action on the screen all at once. Flight Control is a game where you control the flight paths of aircrafts and helicopters. Different size planes need to land on different runways in some levels. The game was developed by Namco and Firemint and was first available back in March of 2009 and has sold over two million units worldwide. Best of all it’s only 99 cents in the Touchpad app store.
WebOS To Become Open-Source
Dec 10, 2011
Yesterday HP announced that they were going to release the code for WebOS, the operating system found inside Palm phones and Touchpad. HP’s will still have a role as it continues to contribute development, engineering and support resources to WebOS. Current Touchpad owners should still be able to receive support in the near-future, and hopefully a lot longer. The webOS division of HP will shift much of its 600 person staff into a separate startup business that will try to take advantage of the 750,000 HP Touchpads that have been sold. WebOS is the only platform designed from the ground up to be mobile, cloud-connected and scalable. It has a lot of potential and will hopefully have a place in homes across the country.
Zinio: A Magazine Reader For Touchpad
Nov 14, 2011
After everyone bought an HP Touchpad during the firesale a couple months ago, they slowly began to realize that support is not so great in the land of WebOS. Lately though, developers have been releasing some killer apps that save the Touchpad from being JATWAA (Just Another Tablet Without Any Apps). Zinio has earlier this month released their popular app for the Touchpad. Zinio is the world’s largest digital newsstand offering over 4,000 magazines. There are even some free full magazine and magazine excerpts to download. If you decide to buy one, the average price of a magazine in Zinio is about $5, about what you’d expect to find it for at the store. A good thing is that because the magazines are downloaded to your Touchpad, you can read them away from wifi hotspots. And not surprisingly, the experience of reading a magazine with this app is really quite nice.
More @ Zinio.
HP Touchpad Offline RSS Feed Reader
Nov 6, 2011
Ever since I got my $99 HP Touchpad I’ve been looking for a way to view RSS feeds offline. Because the Touchpad doesn’t have built in 3G, an offline RSS feed viewer is a great solution for reading news while commuting to work, hanging out in the park, or being somewhere else without a wifi connection. I was hoping Pulse or similar software would eventually port versions of their apps over to WebOS but with WebOS support in question, I doubt that there will be too many new apps being released.
Today I finally found the right app for the job and best of all, it’s free! The app is simply called RSS Basic Free. There is also a paid version for 99 cents but I’m not sure of the difference between the free and the paid version other than supporting the developer. RSS Basic Free may not be as fancy as some of the other apps but it does do the job and it’s actually somewhat refreshing how simple the interface is. After you download it, you will notice that you have to manually add feed URL’s from your favorite blogs. This may take a little time but after you start inserting the feed URLs you will notice the program start to fill up with stories. Turn your wifi off an BAM! offline RSS feeds on your Touchpad.
Here are a few of RSS feed URLs to my favorite blogs to get you started:
- Boing Boing: http://feeds.boingboing.net/boingboing/iBag
- Engaget: http://www.engadget.com/rss.xml
- Kotaku: http://feeds.gawker.com/kotaku/full
- The Official Google Blog: http://feeds.feedburner.com/blogspot/MKuf
- Playstation Blog: http://feeds.feedburner.com/psblog
- Wired Top Stories: http://feeds.wired.com/wired/index