While owners of the Palm Pre in Europe are still languishing with a few hundred apps (if that many) of the free variety, they can at least take heart that their carrier hasn’t abandoned them. As noted by teltarif.de, O2 is actually behind the creation of at least four German-language webOS apps: Mobile eBay, Xing, N24, and FriendScout24. Xing is a business social networking site similar to LinkedIn and popular in Germany, FriendScout24 is Germany’s top dating website, and N24 is a German news channel (News 24, eh). Mobile eBay, as you’ve likely deduced from its clever title, is eBay Germany formatted for your webOS phone. While Europe won’t be getting paid applications until March, webOS users in Germany can at least take heart that their carrier is still looking out for them.

Thanks to Hans for the tip!

With the GSM Pre falling into the hands of anxious Germans as I type, we’ve found out that the Pre in Germany wants to provide support for Bluetooth tethering, at least if you ask the Help app:

Use Phone as Modem

If you use your phone as a modem, you can access the internet with your computer independently from your location as long as you have coverage. Ask your mobile provider whether you can use this function with your contract.

After that are instructions on how to set up your phone and computer for tethering. Unfortunately, it seems that all you get are instructions, as following said instructions and pairing with the computer only gets you the standard bluetooth services we’ve come to know on the Pre. But… it is one more step towards a land of tethering, now all we need is for Palm to flip the metaphorical switch.

Thanks to Carsten for the tip!

Well, with the German pre-launch of the Palm Pre happening today with those premier parties, it’s time to make way in the App Catalog for some apps for our friends that sprechen ze Deutsch.

New apps:

• billger.de, Free, by solute gmbh: German price retail shop price comparisons.
• Match ‘Em, $0.99, by Dynaptic: Match pairs hidden under tiles in a race against time. Congrats to Homebrew Graduate RoyS!
• My Loaned Items, $1.99, by MobiChip: Keep track of everything you’ve loaned to friends and family and send out automatic reminders to return your stuff.
• TechTray, $0.99, by KlikTray, LLC: Browse the news feeds of the top 25 news and tech websites. Another Homebrew Graduate, congratulations to cyberprashant!
• The Weather Channel, Free, by The Weather Channel: Location-based weather app with interactive maps and forecasts. Supposedly only works in the US of A, though we’ve received reports that it works up in Canada if you add via GPS.

Updated apps:

• AP Mobile, Free

Strangely, we’ve also gotten some reports of two more German apps that were in the App Catalog, but have since disappeared: VZ-Netwerke and ran, which have since disappeared. This may very well be linked to a statement on O2’s German website, which says that there will be some apps in the German App Catalog that will not be in the US App Catalog, and vice versa (the Weather Channel app’s page states that it is a US-only app).

Thanks to everybody that sent these in!

The fine folks over in Europe are finally getting in on the review fun that we had over here during the summer. Over at Golem.de they got some extended quality time with the phone, long enough to write up a 20-page review that covers just about every aspect of the phone. The conclusions are pretty much the same as ours, though there seems to be little difference between webOS 1.1.3 on O2’s Pre phones and the 1.1.0 version that we had on Sprint and Bell before webOS 1.2 hit. It is worth noting that webOS 1.1.3 does not come with the iTunes sync fix that 1.2.1 brought, so the Pre will be hitting Europe sans out-of-the-box music synchronization. An update to correct that and “bring parity” with the North American Pre is expected some time next month.

Heise.de aren’t the only ones that got their hands on the GSM Pre, as Trusted Reviews also put the phone through its paces. Their extensive review covered a lot of nitpicky items, but it’s the sign of a good product (or at least a product with good potential) when nitpicks are what take up space on the page and not huge glaring problems. Strangly, O2 sent United Kingdom-based Trusted Reviews a QWERTZ (i.e. German) Pre for their review. Slashgear did take a look at the UK edition and found no surprises.

Generally the reviews have come to the same conclusion as most stateside observers: the star of the Palm Pre is webOS. The build quality still leaves something to be desired, though we can easily point to the moving parts slider design as the culprit in the feels-flimsy category.

Thanks to Gizmo21 and Terry for the tips!