Homebrew app installation for noobs

Alright people, I'm a noob ..yeah I'll admit it. But i just accomplished something today which made me feel like a genius . We all have been patiently waiting for Palm's CERTIFIED developers to grace us with some lovely apps for our beloved PRE. But unlike most of you, i am not a very patient person. I have seen on this forum, instructions on rooting your Palm pre in order to install homebrew apps. I mean common, i barely even know how to utilize all the functionality of this beautiful piece of technology, to even dream about successfully rooting this device without bricking it. But that all changed as i was browsing the net for alternative solutions. I stumbled on a site called precentral.net, and to my astonishment, i saw a program developed by one of the members, called WebOS Quick install.I know this program has been mentioned here in this forum, but like i said, this topic is only addressing other noobs/not so tech savy members like myself. But anyways, this program is Gods gift to noobs like myself (as i will always be grateful to whoever developed it). This program requires ABSOLUTELY NO ROOTING. everything has been done for you. Now to the fun part.. I have followed the guidelines they gave on how to make it work, and i have successfully installed 8 apps so far. I will break it down in noob terms . Please note that i have a windows XP laptop, so i don't know if it will work on other brands.

PROCEDURES:


(1) First,you need to download the recent JAVA (1.6) :   http://www.filehippo.com/download_java_runtime/. After it is downloaded, double click it to install it. you will then need to restart your computer when the installation process is completed.


(2) After that, go to precentral.net and register. then search for WebOS Quick install :  http://forums.precentral.net/homebrew-apps/194832-webos-quick-install-v1-0-a.html. when you find it, it should be a .JAR file. Download it (i suggest downloading it to your desktop for quick access).


(3) When you're done, double-click it to run it (please note that JAVA will automatically be the default program to open it). It will then prompt you to download another program called WebOS Doctor (it's 195mb in size). click ok to download it.


(4) When it is done with the download, double click and follow the steps to install it. now this program will install something called NOVCOM.


(5) When WebOS doctor is done installing, close it, and go back to the WebOS Quick install program you downloaded. double-click it and it should open fine.


THAT'S IT PEOPLE, THE HARD PART IS DONE!.


(6) All you need to do now is enable the developer mode on your palm pre by using the konami code which can be found on this site, or on the net (you just type:upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart and the dev mode icon appears. touch the icon and you will see an option to enable it - note that your phone restarts after it is enabled).


(7) When you have enabled the dev mode on your pre, connect it to your computer and select the JUST CHARGE menu on your phone.


Please allow about 1 minute for your computer to recoginze your "new hardware".


Now go back to the site: precentral.net, and go to their homebrew apps section. you should see a lot of apps there. download as many as you want (note you have to be logged in the site to download). the apps will be in .ipk file formats. i suggest you download them to your computer desktop, so it will be easy for you to just drag and drop into the WebOS Quick install program you opened. when you have dragged and  dropped all your downloaded apps, click the install button to install them, and that's it people!!!


please note that you should go back to the dev mode on your phone (by typing the same konami code), and disable it. It will again prompt you to restart your phone.


Just a little tip for people. there is an app there i highly recommend you download. the app is called filecoaster:  http://www.precentral.net/homebrew-apps/filecoaster. This app lets you install homebrew apps right from your phone!..no computer needed. all you do is copy the URL of the homebrew app you want (keep finger pressed on gesture area while you press c) and paste it (keep finger pressed on gesture area while you press v) in the filecoaster app that is on your phone, and it does all the magic for you.

Now i hope this guide will help other "noobs",

Thanks for reading

Here are some screen captures of apps i installed:

I have:   file coaster (lets me install homebrew apps from my phone)
              Checkers
              Solitary
              Pixi package tracker (lets me track my usps,ups,dhl,fedex packages)
              Google map bookmark (lets me store/save addresses for use with google maps)
              Pixi translator app (for translating any language to english, and vice versa)
              Garfield comic jokes (this updates garfield comic jokes daily)
               PixiMedi (this is a medical app)

All these apps work perfectly fine and look good. I took screen captures of thr apps on my phone for proof, but for some reason this site will not let me upload them..keeps  giving me an error message saying I should contact the site administrator

Go here to send the admin a message http://www.PalmPixiForum.com/index.php?action=pm;sa=send;u=1



Yes, this is the link that has all the homebrew apps http://forums.precentral.net/homebrew-apps/

ok i did it that was easy

that's what i want to do, but i read a couple things to do,,,,,,i don't know about that, they have to make it real easy for me to do that

Okay, so I installed webOS QuickInstaller and fileCoaster, but i cannot copy the url!  If I type the url into filecoaster is downloads and installs fine.  But i cannot copy it in for the life of me.  Help please!