Helping Josh live with his Pre 3

Posted by SixFingeredAmish on April 16, 2012 11:50 am 26

Just a few minutes ago, Josh tweeted that he has booted up his Pre 3. The tweet instantly brought back memories of Josh talking about his Pre 3 in the podcast, saying that he wanted to throw it against a wall because the experience was so bad. I had previously pondered why Josh would say that, because for me as a Pre 3 user, and having tried iOS and stock ICS, webOS still has the best experience for me. So, to make his second time with the Pre 3 better, here is a list of recommended apps (from the type of apps seen on Josh's homescreens), patches, and themes.

The Apps:

Spotify (free). The official Spotify app for webOS. Beatiful, fast, and lean, the app is definitely better than the Android app, or at least on par with it.

Twitter: phnx (free). While Carbon was widely accepted as the best Twitter app on webOS, just yesterday, it has been discontinued and removed from the App Catalog, so that leaves phnx, the second best and free Twitter app.

Google Reader: Feeder (free). Feeder is minimalistic and unitizes webOS design principles such as swipe to mark as read and makes the app a joy to use. When Josh recommended this app for Engadget's annual holiday apps recommendation list, it was still paid and in the App Catalog, but now, like Carbon, it has been discontinued, but the ipk file can be found on the developer's blog.

Podcatcher: drPodder (free in Preware). Having used many podcatchers for other platforms in the past, drPodder is superior than many Android ones, but lacks in comparison to Apple's due to integration with iTunes. This app is a must-have, especially when Josh wants to listen to himself.

And the other apps Josh already knows about: Dropboxify, wIRC, and Voogle.

The Patches:

As Josh would already know, all patches are available through Preware, and as a reminder, it can be installed through webOS Quick Install.

UberKernel. Installing UberKernel is a breeze, just install and completely reboot the device. If no settings are tinkered with, it will act exactly the same as before, but it will still fix issues with the default Palm kernel which causes the "Too many cards" and other errors. The kernel was made by WebOS Internals, and the people there are super trustworthy.

The patches for a "smoother" webOS:

Buttah. As you may have guessed from the name, this patch was made by the people at WebOS Internals. The patch increases touch sensitivity and improves scrolling, making the overall feel of the OS very smooth. This is the patch to get.

Mojo FPS Booster, Mojo Speedy Switch, and Mojo Tap Responsiveness. These patches make apps fast and smooth. FPS Booster forces 60 fps, Speedy Switch decreases the wait time between switching apps, and Tap Responsiveness makes taps for responsive!

The patches for the system

Disk Cache Mod, Muffle System Logging, Remove Dropped Packet Logging, and System Control Optimization. webOS has never been known for a flawless experience,there is always something misbehaving causing lag and fast battery drain. These patches will decrease lag by modifying cache, decrease system logging (webOS logs everything), and change the way the kernel handles memory.

Some other patches

WiFi Fix for Pre3-224. The latest version of webOS for the Pre 3 brought many new functionality and bug fixes, but created some issues with WiFi. This patch rolls back WiFi to the one from webOS 2.2.3.

Unthrottle Download Manager. For some reason, all webOS phones since the Pre limited download speeds to only 64kb/sec, and this patch unthrottles that. It makes a big difference in drPodder.

Palm Carrier String. Unlike other patches, this does not make the Pre 3 any better, but if Josh misses Palm, the carrier string will be replaced with "Palm", bringing back his glory days with his Treo.

If you have other suggestions for Josh's Pre 3, please write them below. The Pre 3 needs to replace the Bold 9900's spot on Josh's desk. C'mon, Josh!