But before I get to the point, let me comment something that really bothers me: As of now, the US App Catalog shows about 2000 apps, while the German catalog is showing a mere 600, paid apps included. I understand, that given Palm’s app submission forms, it’s a bit of an inconvenience for developers to fill out the extra fields to make an app available outside the US, but from my own apps QR deCODEr and DIX Dictionary, I managed to collect a bit of statistics (which I also confirmed with other developers), looking as shown below:

While the numbers for Canada, Mexico, Great Britain and Spain are admittedly not too impressive, things look quite different when it comes to Germany. The US account for about 70% of all WebOS users, but 20% of all users come from Germany as the diagram suggests. Thus, those developers not willing to take an extra five minutes to fill out the forms to make their app available outside the US are basically alienating between 20 and 30% of potential users of their app. What I find most frustrating about this is, that I can’t understand why so many developers don’t care about this. Sure, it’s a bit of a hassle to fill out those extra forms since translating your app takes quite some time and effort, but then again, Palm doesn’t force you to do so. You are free to just copy over your English app descriptions into the German / Spanish / French forms. That’s about two minutes for each additional language. So to all of those lazy developers: Are you sure you don’t have an extra six minutes?! There really is more to this world than the United States!

But enough already, here we got with the install tutorial for apps submitted for other regions than your own.

HOWTO Install Apps Not Showing Up In The App Catalog For Your Region

I realize that this may seem quite some work to most ordinary users, but for somebody who’s used homebrew apps or the WebOS SDK before, it doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to follow the tutorial and install an app.

The basic idea is to exploit the App Catalog update mechanism’s current behavior. If you click a link to an app that’s not available in your region, instead of viewing this app, the app catalog presents you with an error message that this app is not available in your country. Nevertheless, if you already have an older version of such an app installed and go to the update view in the App Catalog, you’ll find that even for those app only available in other regions, you get a notification of available updates and upon tapping ‘install’ the App Catalog will happily download and install the new version of such an app.ç

So all we need to do is make WebOS think that we have an old version of the app we want already installed on our device and it will allow us to download and install the latest version. We do so by creating a “dummy” app with the same app ID as the app we want and a lower version number than the currently available version.

UPDATE: As an alternative to the following DIY tutorial, there are two apps that do all the work for you. See the end of this post for details.

1. Make sure you have all the prerequisites: A text editor, the Palm WebOS SDK , your WebOS device with activated Dev Mode and Preware installed on your device (or some other way to find out app IDs).
2. Create a new folder called Dummy somewhere on your hard disk.
3. Within that folder, create a text file called appinfo.json
4. Open this file in a text editor and copy the following lines to the file (including the brackets):

   {
   “id”: “FILL IN APP ID HERE”,
   “version”: “0.0.1″,
   “vendor”: “FILL IN VENDOR HERE”,
   “title”: “FILL IN TITLE HERE”,

   “type”: “web”,
   “main”: “index.html”
   }
   

5. Fire up Preware and find the app you want to install, e.g. French Le Monde app as show below:
   
6. Scroll down to see the vendor name, version number and app ID:
   

7. Now edit the text file we just created and replace all ‘FILL IN … HERE’ entries with the data you see in Preware AND make sure the version number in the text file is LOWER than the version number you see in Preware (0.0.1 as version number should usually work fine).

   For our Le Monde example the text file should look like this:

   {
   “id”: “com.backelite.lemonde”,
   “version”: “0.0.1″,
   “vendor”: “Le Monde Interactif”,
   “title”: “Lemonde.fr”

   “type”: “web”,
   “main”: “index.html”,
   }
   

8. Fire up the command line, go to the folder containing the Dummy folder and type the following to pack the dummy application:palm-package Dummy
   
9. Now connect your device to your computer via the USB cable and type the following to install the dummy application to your device:palm-install –d usb com.backelite.lemonde_0.0.1_all.ipkYou should now see the dummy application on your device’s launcher page showing up with a default icon. (Don’t launch it, because it won’t start up at this point, since it’s just an empty dummy app.)

   

10. Launch the App Catalog on your device and go to the update view, where you should see our dummy application showing up and an updated version being available:
    
11. Tap Install Updates and wait for your device to download and install the new version.
    
12. Congrats! You now have the full and latest version of an app installed on your device that is not available officially via the App Catalog in your country. You can now launch and use the app.
    
    In your launcher you may still see the old dummy icon for this app. The real icon will show up once you’ve restarted your phone.
    

I’ve successfully tried this procedure with a dozen apps. It works only for FREE apps though. For paid apps, Palm is unfortunately / thankfully doing additional checks, so that you can’t just inject a dummy package to get a free update to the actual app

One last thing: Since I’ve already done this procedure for quite a few apps, you can download my dummy app packages below and just install them to your device using WebOS Quick Install. This way you can skip the text file editing and command line packaging / installing and directly head to the App Catalog update page to get these apps.

• AccuRadio
• 20minutes.fr
• Lemonde.fr
• Word Whirl Lite
• SFR WiFi
• Net2Streams Lite
• YPmobile

Enjoy!

UPDATE

As Jason Robitaille points out here, his Ipk Packager tool may be more comfortable for creating dummy app packages than your regular text editor. Also, Blacklight was kind enough to update his Ipk Fetcher tool to completely automate the above method. Presented with a list of available apps, just select the one you want and hit ‘Generate IPK’ and it‘s done.

Microsoft has become quite innovative in my opinion over the past months. Ranging from creative, refreshing and productivity boosting changes and features in Windows 7, to an actually competitive new search engine called Bing and the recently announced Windows 7 Phone Series with a quite unexpected look & feel, Microsoft apparently also wants a piece of that online maps cake. The following video, which I came across here, shows some of the latest (yet to be published) features of Bing Maps, some of which a rather impressive and astonishing than just cheap copies of what Google Maps offers.

But see for yourself:

Click here to go to the apps web site and make sure your read the short manual here which explains the types of barcodes supported and how to use the application.

The app is currently available via Palm’s web distribution program here while awaiting approval for the on-device app catalog.

It is mistakes from which we learn and judging by how much Microsoft has learned between Windows 7 and Vista, the latter one must have been a really, really big mistake. This time, Microsoft seems to be doing right everything. I’m finding it hard to believe I just said that, but looking at Windows 7 so far, I’d be lying if I said something else. From the beginning till now, they’ve gotten everything right. Towards the end of last year, they presented an early preview of the system, a preview with a stunning new taskbar UI and a preview that was probably more polished and stable as Vista was at its actual release. Since I didn’t have a spare computer by then, I decided to install this version on my everyday laptop, a HP 2710p with a 1.3 GHz ULV CPU. That’s exactly the type of computer where Vista will show it’s flaws in their full glory and it’s also the computer kind of computer that, once installed on, makes you fall in love with that new operating system with the big ‘7’ in its name.

Faster boot time, tremendously faster shutdown / standby time and a really noticeable increase in battery runtime are just a few things Windows Vista promised and Windows 7 actually delivers. The really big thing though is the new taskbar UI (once activated using the magic trick here). Looking really closely, in Vista, I can maybe find one or two good and really helpful UI improvements, the rest just being optical sugar. Now in Windows 7 I can instantly name like 20 new features and improvements on the UI, at least 18 of which are of the type “can’t live without it anymore”. And I really mean that. Ever since I touched that Windows 7 CTP, I’ve been so waiting for Microsoft to release a feature complete Beta version with a reasonable installer so I can update the rest of my computer to Windows 7. The difference between the old taskbar and the new super bar is just enormous, which is also the reason why I don’t want to list the changes here now but rather ask you to wait for another blog post coming within the next days which will cover just the new UI.

Anyway, besides all the improvements I just mentioned, Microsoft added a lot of minor tweaks, like a modern UI for old programs like Word Pad and Paint, an improved calculator, Aero Peek and Snap window arrangement aids, quicker Wi-Fi connection management, sidebar gadgets without the sidebar, easier file sharing on home networks, tablet PC and touch panel improvements, and many more.

From the moment of naming the product, when they kept the clear and simple codename Windows 7 as a final product name instead of some stylish, trendy new marketing name to the point where they underestimated the mass of downloads of the EARLY published PUBLIC beta version, apologized for the error and corrected it by extending the download period and removing the limit on the number of license keys they were going to give out, Microsoft has clearly shown one thing: they have heard the complaints and are willing to react and change things. Personally I think, this time, they got it ALL right! And unless they miraculously find a way to screw it all up right before the finish line, I think Windows 7 will be what Vista was promised to be and much more, probably the best operating system we’ve seen from that company in over ten years!

Related Links:

• Windows 7 website
• Windows 7 Beta download
• Blog with lots of tips & tricks regarding Windows 7
• Windows 7 Team Blog

Long story short, I’ve never been to fond of the Garmin devices and as I’m looking for an outdoor GPS for hiking, mountain biking, etc., I found the Magellan Triton series to be particularly interesting. Color touch screen, rugged, nice interface, support for Geo Caching and depending on the model flashlight, camera and many more features make this device really interesting. BUT it has one very large drawback! Magellan doesn’t seem to interested in Europe too much, meaning, there’s only country boundaries and large streets on the device’s integrated base map and no detailed maps available to buy and / or download (besides some special maps like waterways and topographic maps for Norway). Since I’m planning to use this thing mainly in Europe that would be an absolute no-buy reason.

Fortunately a little digging brought up that there’s plenty of 3rd party maps and tools available for the Magellan Triton. Seems that the device’s map format is publicly known. I don’t know whether it’s been made available by Magellan or just been figured out by someone but this fact allows to create proper maps for the device. Plenty of such maps for various countries all over the world are linked on http://www.maps4me.de/ and a few more links plus a lot of user support info can be found at http://www.magellanboard.de. There’s one map I’d especially like to point out: A topographic map of Germany for the Magellan Triton created using the OpenStreetMap data as a basis. I find it just awesome that this way you get a full topographic map for Germany which may not be perfectly complete but in some cases even more detailed than commercial maps for free. Beside that I just like the idea behind OpenStreetMap as I pointed out in an earlier post, I’m also quite fond of the fact that using OSM on your GPS device, you can kill two birds with one stone. First you get a free map for your device and then, wherever you find spots, tracks or streets missing in this map, you can just hit the “record button” on your receiver and using your PC, add the recorded data to OpenStreetMap on their site.

After all, the availability of an OSM map for the Magellan Triton might be the one decisive reason, to finally convince me, that this should be might next GPS device.

BUT luckily there is OpenRouteService, a free routing service that is based on (as you may guess) OpenStreetMap. Another great example of what to do with a free worldwide street database

The look and feel is basically the same as with Google Maps (without the satellite coverage of course) but the big difference is, that OpenStreetMap maps are completely free. Not like Google’s maps which are “free” as in “you can do this and that with our maps BUT YOU’RE NOT ALLOWED TO …………………. <LONG TEXT FOLLOWING> …………”.

Of course they don’t have all the features of the big players like Google or Microsoft; there’s no Street View, no Bird’s Eye View and sadly but understandably  no satellite coverage but the maps (and the data behind them) are completely free and you can use them for practically anything. You can even download the world database which the maps are based on onto your computer and use it for whatever you like. Besides, in some of the more crowded areas, OpenStreetMap maps are even more accurate then Google’s version, as you can see in the following picture.

So how are they making these maps? Simple answer: You make them. Take your GPS unit and record your track while you’re driving your car, riding your bike or just walking. Afterwards, get online, upload those tracks to the OSM website and name the streets. As mentioned above, it’s a community effort. So the success of this project depends on as many users willing to take part as possible. There’s still quite a few blank spots on the maps, especially regarding smaller villages, etc. So feel free to contribute! Speaking for myself, I’ll definitely give it a try and provide a few tracks in the near future since I’ve found a few spots that I can fill.

Last but not least, as it is with Google, OSM can be customized with overlays and different views. In particular, there’s a cycle map…

… and a skiing map.

I really like the idea of this project, especially the fact that we have a worldwide street and address database that is available for free to everyone. Besides, talking about normal street maps, it definitely is an alternative to Google Maps. So make sure, that at least every now and then, you use OSM for your address searches.

The range is from file conversion, video encoding, web analysis to business travel and groupware tools. It’s a nice long list with a lot of entries on it you probably already know but I’m pretty sure there’s some projects on it you haven’t ever heard of but which you might find pretty interesting. It’s worth a visit!

I don’t have much more to say about it. Just wanted to help spreading the word. Give it a try for yourself!

Now the bad news. I can’t get that freakin’ thing to learn my name. I must admit there’s no way my parents could have known that I’d be using handwriting recognition on a computer one day when they named me over 20 years ago. So I can’t blame them for deciding on Jürgen.

As long as I’m using German as the selected input language on the input panel, I’m fine. But since I’m dealing with English most of the time and since I’m also talking to some Spanish guys every now and then, most of the time my input panel isn’t set to German. Unfortunately Microsoft didn’t consider that case as relevant and there’s no way of teaching Vista my name with the input language set to English, not even using the handwriting personalization tool as it won’t allow me to enter any characters that aren’t part of the selected language’s keyboard layout. Automatic learning and correction tools aren’t an option either since whatever I write on the input panel gets changed into the closest fit of a standard character. As soon as the correction tool is running out of close matches to "ü" it just comes up with not-so-close matches. This turn’s out to become an extremely funny game that in no way I can win.

Finally as a another little side note on handwriting recognition in Windows Vista let me mention that I started training the system (in English) using the handwriting personalization tool to improve accuracy even more. This again works great just that I can’t run this tool for any language other than English. Especially not for German, Spanish or French input. It took me a while to find that information on the web but turns out that this is in fact true. Handwriting personalization is only available for English, Chinese, Japanese and Korean.

To be precise, automatic learning of handwriting style and targeting specific recognition errors is available for these languages and only these. Automatic learning of vocabulary and teaching the system your handwriting style by feeding the system with handwriting examples is even supported for English exclusively. Check for yourself here.

Microsoft could really care a bit more about DETAILS!!!