Review: Classic Palm OS Emulator by MotionApps 83

This app review brought to you by forum member ProfJonathon.  For the fine work done here, Profjonathon will receive a coupon for $10 off any purchase at the PreCentral.net Accessory store.  Want one? Check out our Forum Review details here!

When Palm announced WebOS, many expressed concern about losing their investment in (and functionality of) their existing PalmOS apps, especially when Palm said it would not be creating a PalmOS emulator and that the earliest version of the SDK would not be sufficiently low-level to enable someone else to do so. Happily, Palm soon retreated from that position, giving MotionApps sufficient access to the SDK and WebOS' foundations to enable MotionApps to create Classic. While not a complete solution for all PalmOS apps, Classic (which was made available via the App Catalog on the Pre launch day, and is currently on version 1.1) has rapidly become a must-have for those of us who are transitioning from PalmOS devices (in my case, a T|X) to WebOS.

Read on for the full review!

Like all other App Catalog apps, the 7-day demo of Classic installs with a couple of clicks, placing an attractive tuxedo jacket icon in the first page of applications. Launching Classic places a familiar looking 320x320 screen with a 5-way navigation button and "hard buttons" on the Pre's screen:

Users can add .PRC applications and .PDB data files via the USB connection of the Pre, placing them into a Classic-created directory called ClassicApps/PALM/Launcher/Install. While actual Hotsyncing is not (yet) supported, Classic includes a HotSyncID application to support those PalmOS apps whose license depends on the HotSyncID. (Note that while the original version of Classic had the user-added applications on a separate window and would not allow spaces in the HotSyncID, the Classic ROM updater fixes that.) For compatibility, the latest version (1.1) of Classic allows users to turn the limited sound support on and off, and toggle the emulation speed from normal to 2x, as some PalmOS programs are sensitive to those settings and may crash Classic.

MotionApps offers a list of "Classic Certified" PalmOS applications, which are known to work within Classic, but while other applications generate a notification that they are not certified, they may work well. (Cleverly, MotionApps has teamed up with MobiHand to create a co-branded PalmOS app store. In my own testing to date, Mobipocket Reader  worked fine (including with Secure Mobipocket format e-books such as those sold by Fictionwise.com, once the Secure Mobipocket Personal ID generated by Mobipocket on the Pre is added to your Fictionwise account), TealDoc and Bubblet ran well, Worldmate worked fine (including accessing the Internet via the Pre's network connection) and Niggle (the old freeware precursor to Handmark's Scrabble) started fine but crashed at first when accessing the dictionary, a problem that has now been fixed by the ROM updater. Vegas Slots also ran, but the animation of the spinning slot machine was not working, and the tiles in FreeJongg do not show up. Of the programs I've tried, only Penticon's Hebrew Lite crashed Classic so badly as to require uninstallation and reinstallation, not surprising given how much it is tied to specific PalmOS code. Classic also maps the "buttons" on the virtual PalmOS device to keys on the Pre, a feature accessible by tapping the bottom left corner of the screen.

A word about crashing: when Classic crashes, it displays a "blue screen of death," which instructs the user to do a soft reset (available via the drop-down menu) and relaunch Classic.

(Confusingly, it also instructs the user to "please close this window and try again," even though the Pre's interface works in cards rather than closeable windows.) Generally, the soft reset works, and there's a hard reset available as well (along with the uninstall/reinstall mentioned above).

Even beyond the apps it won't support, Classic isn't perfect. For those of us who have been using 320x480 devices like the T|X, going back to 320x320 is very confining. The lack of Graffiti is frustrating (as it is on the Pre as a whole; any developers listening?), and it can sometimes be difficult to tap the reduced-size icons of PalmOS apps (designed for stylus use) with a finger, although I was able to play Bubblet without a real problem [Ed. Note: 1.1 allows you to pinch-zoom on PalmOS aps]. At times, the notifications area slides into where Classic places the 5-way navigator, making "down" taps difficult. (One other issue: for reviews like this one, the buttons-to-Pre mapping make a clean fullscreen screenshot using the Orange+Shift+P command almost impossible to get.) Classic is also pricey: the full license sells for $29.99 (purchasable via a link within the program itself, that generates a code to be entered into the MotionApps site), but it's still a fair deal for what is essentially a second operating system for your Pre.

Ultimately, Classic largely just works, which is the essence of the PalmOS as a whole. For Pre users who are making the big move from PalmOS, as well as for new adopters who want features and software not yet available for the Pre, Classic is definitely worth serious consideration. {ProfJonathan}