HP in the Web/Beta Feed

UPDATE: This article assumes that the following apps are developed by HP. The developer site listed for these apps is www.hp.com.

As we all know HP is planning to acquire Palm, the people that brought us our beloved webOS mobile operating system. I could write up an editorial about how people are concerned about what direction HP will take webOS... but frankly why beat a dead horse? Instead I'd like to talk about the future of apps developed by HP. Yesterday we saw an influx of apps in the web and beta feed by none other than HP. All of these apps are rather bare-bones but are functional and do what they are supposed to do. These apps are nothing exceptional, other than the fact that HP developed them but nonetheless I like that our new "overlords" are dipping their feet into webOS development.

The first app we'll look at is "RockPaperScissors". Don't expect much from this very simple game. You pick your action and you are told if you win, lose, or draw. It keeps a tally at the top of the screen (it doesn't save these scores, it is erased once the app is closed). I am disappointed that there isn't more to this game. Although you can determine what the A.I. chose as it's action, I wish it told you what it picked. An animation of your hand and the A.I.'s hand or just a simple image of the action would be nice to look at. I can honestly say that you'll be bored fast without some kind visual improvement.

Next we'll look at "Maze". Like the name implies this is a maze game that gets more difficult as you progress. It's similar to what you would give a grade schooler to kill time. I think this app has a great deal of promise but there are many things that need to be improved. One complaint that I have is that once you close the app your progress is erased. The second complaint are the controls. You must tap the screen to bring up a directional pad and once you tap the directional, the pad goes away. It becomes rather tiresome having to continually tap the screen. A permanent control or a directional swipe, similar to the way "Snake" by roar does it, would be easier for the player.

"magicBlock", yet another simple game, has more to it than the previous games.  The goal of the game is to turn the yellow lights blue. It's more addicting than the other games HP pushed out in the Beta Feed. A nice little touch is that the lights "twinkle", something I didn't really expect. The levels become increasingly harder, but there is a "Help" button that gives you a hint at the next move you should make... a nice touch. The "Restart" button restarts the level, and like the other apps it doesn't save your progress once the app is closed.

HP also released three productivity apps. A timer app called "FinalCountDown" is surprisingly useful. Again a simple interface; we have a time input, countdown display, and a start/stop button. What surprised me was when it reached the end of the count down it chimes, vibrates, and shows a notification (unfortunately the notification goes away). A drawback of the app is that the device needs to be "awake" in order for the countdown to work. What do I mean by "awake"? Once the screen goes black, the countdown stops until you either open the phone or press the power button. This is a big drawback to this app, one that I hope is resolved in the future.

"Password Creator" does exactly what it says. It gives you several options to the customize the generated password such as using upper case, lower case, digits, and length. The only drawback of this app is the lack of being copy the password into another application.

"QuickSms" is actually pretty nifty. I believe there are similar apps in the app catalog, but I like that this is quick and simple. It comes preloaded with a few categories and each category has a few SMS templates. What is awesome is that you can edit them, add to the category, and make your own category. Don't worry about closing the app, your new templates are saved for later. When you click the "Send SMS" button, it pulls up the messaging app and from there you enter the recipient and press the send button.  I hope HP will develop a similar app for the email client, I for one use the Canned Response in Gmail all the time and would like a similar ability on my phone.

That's it for now. Be sure to check back for updates to these apps and hopefully more apps from HP in the future.

About Aaron

Computer Instructor and Assistant Manager for J. Ryan Solutions, a company which manages computer labs in housing developments throughout the city of Boston.