Classic PalmOS Emulator: Video Walkthrough 63
From rumor to video demo in 24 hours, that's how we roll - then again, Palm always planned on demoing MotionApps' Classic PalmOS emulator today. The emulator works quite well -- it's an app and behaves like any other card, staying live in the background. Palm apps are loaded thusly: plug in the Pre to your computer as normal to activate disk mode, find the "Classic" directory, drop your PalmOS PRCs in, done.
Included apps seem to be the default PalmOS suite of the PIM apps, preferences, WorldClock, etc. There is a "hotsync" app onboard but it cannot sync to anything -- instead it's there because many PalmOS apps use your Hotsync app to generate your registration key.
The interface is old school Palm, with a 5-way d-pad on screen flanked by 4 app buttons, a search button, and the menu button. PalmOS apps will have access to data but not much else -- there is no integration with the Pre's built-in, Syngery-based PIM apps, for example. Text entry happens via the keyboard.
The remarkable thing is that even though the Pre has a non-stylus-based capacitive screen and Treos and Centros are stylus-based resistive screens, navigating around apps like Epocrates (demo'd above) seemed remarkably easy.
We did ask if the app did more than your standard widget and the answer seems to be a qualified yes, although it definitely does take advantage of many standard APIs as well.
It's targeted for release at launch, but not guaranteed.
63 Comments
what if...
i have 100's of contacts on my PalmOS, how would i go about adding them to the synegized WebOS without painstakingly adding 1 at a time?
Thanks!
Hotsync serves a whole lot more purposes than just installing apps. For instance, my present setup includes 2-way synchronization with the following apps:
1) Pocket Quicken
2) American Airline's "One World" app
3) Secret!
4) Natura Comet
5) CallRec
It's extremely cool that someone is trying to address some of the shortcomings of the Pre - but without "real" Hotsync abilities it will Pre-vent many users from making the transition.
Palm *IS* crazy. Have been for years, absolutely nutters.
But it's nice to see them trying.
Yup. As much as Palm might think the previous Palm devices sold like hotcakes because of "Minesweeper" and "Memo Pad/Memos" - it's been the third party software (and hardware) that progressed the devices and forced them to innovate. WebOS is a completely untested and new OS, with little software available - they're essentially starting from scratch with no track record for this OS.
How well they do (after the initial hype) will depend on how much of an improvement this thing is over Handspring's Treo 600/650/700/755 which is about 98% compatible with all the Palm applications ever written....
I have to agree that I will miss my Palm OS but I don't think I will want the same old icons my Treo had. The web OS is much better. People just need to move on into the New wave. I spend a lot of money buying Apps for my Treo's and Centro over the years and I feel like it will all go to waste but the change will be much better and efficient. Besides, with all the new Homebrew apps, it just keeps getting better.