My first PDA was a Palm M100. My first smartphone was a Treo 650. I loved Palm OS. But I didn’t hesitate to move on when iOS and Android pushed the envelope in the smartphone world, and personally, I don’t miss any Palm apps. Now, there are plenty of people who did, and Styletap tried to reach them with their Palm OS emulator, which was jailbreak-only on the iPhone. But it’s been YEARS since a Palm OS device was produced, and now WebOS is open source. So does the world REALLY need a way to keep Palm OS apps alive?
Apparently, Styletap thinks so, and they’re offering a way to wrap them in an iOS blanket and dispatch them to your new iPhone. Because nothing says new technology like a 15-year-old app! Seriously, they’re arguing it’s a way for companies to maintain an investment in Palm OS, but…really?
Here’s what Styletap has to say:
Why Use the iOS Wrapper SDK?
StyleTap Platform for iPhone® cannot currently be purchased through the Apple App Store because it provides capabilities (e.g.the ability to download other Palm applications) that are restricted by Apple. The StyleTap iOS Wrapper SDK allows you as a Palm application developer to create an iPhone (iOS) application that “wraps” a Palm application inside StyleTap Platform for iPhone in a way that removes all of the restricted capabilities. You can then submit the resulting iPhone application to be included in the Apple App Store.
[Note: StyleTap does not guarantee that Apple will accept your iOS application for inclusion in the App Store. There are many reasons completely unrelated to StyleTap Platform that may cause Apple to not approve your application for the App Store.]
Similarly, if you are a large organization that doesn’t care about the App Store but wants to deploy your key Palm OS applications onto internal iOS devices, the StyleTap iOS Wrapper SDK can help. It enables your required Palm application(s) to be embedded into an iOS application that can be installed internally on standard Apple devices, without going through the App Store.
Maybe I’m wrong, but it seems to be me that any app designed for a low-resolution, a stylus-driven operating system is going to be an exercise in extreme frustration on a high-resolution, fingertip driven system. It would have to be a one-of-a-kind app for a company to become an iOS developer and go through the expense of licensing Styletap, when that money could be spent on developing a truly native iOS app.
But then again, I could certainly be wrong. And Styletap is just looking for a way to stay relevant when the need for emulation is rapidly shrinking. If you look at their website, the OSes they support are Symbian, Windows Mobile, and iOS. They aren’t on Android, and they exist to emulate an OS that’s died and been reborn so many times I’ve lost count. But clearly, Styletap sees a market there!
Do you have a Palm app you can’t live without? Or are you a developer who plans on using Styletap’s new wrapper? Let us know in the comments!
Via The Verge