It looks like the HP servers are finally off. It makes sense: The two previously suggested dates for this were both the fifteenth of the month. Aside from the fact of the closure, there is little to complain about. There was a two month extension of the original date and we’ve had an extra month on that to get back up copies of our apps.
Many apps have relocated to other places and remain available. Perhaps this final closure will result in more appearing, as any contractual obligations are likely lapsed. Don’t forget to contact the developers of your favourite apps (or any developers for that matter!) and point them at this thread.
It’s fair to say that a significant number of the apps in the HP catalogue are unlikely to ever reappear, some for commercial reasons, most because for now, return on the effort and investment in support will be close to zero. However, a new, modern version of webOS is under development. It remains a system with great potential for the ‘internet of things’, data synergy and quality of the user interface. It is also still fairly easy to make apps based on standard web technologies. Making an app with Enyo enables deployment on all major mobile systems and webOS TVs!
What is currently lost is a unified and administered system for selling apps, an automated backup and the ability to remotely wipe a stolen device. It is entirely possible that all these things can be rebuilt if there are people with the skills, interest and time to do it. If the LuneOS project continues with some measure of success, then it will need these things to be a fully featured mobile OS and if you dear reader, are considering rebuilding any of this, compatibility with LuneOS and the legacy system is advisable and given the close similarity, shouldn’t be too difficult.
For now, here is a list of links. Expect to see more articles soon on this site for securing your webOS devices without HP.
Start here: webOS Survival Kit. Seriously, do it now.
Available app catalogues:
- The webOS Nation App Gallery(which already has a feed to…)
- Preware.
- CMCS webOS catalog.
Here are some tips on manually backing up. Most of your data can be backed up, we just need to streamline the process. It can then be semi, even perhaps fully automated. Though you only really need this data to restore a device (or transfer the data to another), get in the habit of doing it fairly regularly, just in case.
Watch this space.
