Finally some QUALITY apps for Android: PalmOS emulator ported PalmOS users who've become objects of ridicule with their refusal to upgrade can now switch to Android while keeping the favourite PalmOS apps. The technology comes from StyleTap, whose PalmOS emulators made Windows Mobile and Symbian usable for so long. Now PalmOS obsessives can buy a port of the emulator for Google's Android …
Used this with my old windows mobile when my Palm T3 battery would no longer hold a charge,and I am tempted to try this as I wrote to the company many,many months ago asking if an android version was in development.
Got an email earlier so downloaded the apk to try it out.
Why ? Some of us were Palm users for years and built up a vast collection of software. I want to see what works using Styletap just for amusement.
Fitaly, an alternative keyboard for various PalmOS devices. The earlier version is free now. It's also available - not free - for Windows tablet and touchscreen PCs, and for older Windows Mobile devices. I rely on it, because I've got a kind of RSI affliction.
I expect that you might be able to type into Palm programs from Fitaly, and perhaps copy text to a clipboard to paste into Android, but that might be as far as you could go. But it might be enough.
I asked about this on an HP TouchPad forum when I wanted to know if I could synch with Palm Desktop on my PC. I was told I didn't need this as the Cloud was the place to store my appointments, contacts, travel itineraries and expense claims. I wrote back with a few rude words and the next thing I heard, they had killed the product anyway.
My Android phone will sync with Palm Desktop through a third party app so I probably don't need this, but I have to say it is so slow compared to my Tungsten E2 that I am tempted to give a it a try. maybe it is just the 'phone though.....
Didn't know Graffiti was available for Android so just installed it and could immediately do the whole alphabet - now my default input.
As for what Palm apps do I want to run - well LifeBalance for starters, which has never ported to Android.
I used StyleTap on my PC; plug the Palm in, a representation appeared on the PC screen and I could type into the Palm apps using the PC keyboard - brilliant.
But $50 - ouch. Probably just stick to the Windows version of LifeBalance for the moment (yes, I really do still use it).
Actually I suggested this at a Sony shareholders' meeting a couple of years ago, along with some data conversion utilities. For Sony, it would have been partial atonement for orphaning my Clie, but it might have gotten me to consider buying a Sony smartphone. (Already two potential sales went to Sony's competitors, plus recommendations against Sony.) Suffice it say that Sony didn't appear to be listening--and that was before this year's angry circus of restless natives. (I was actually seated about 5 meters from where they stopped a guy who was trying to rush the stage.)
Pretty sure I wouldn't have paid $50 for the old data, but at this point it's moot. It's possible that my Palm data is still lurking around somewhere, but not worth looking for now. Might as well assume it's gone to that great bit bucket in the sky.
(However I still mostly blame Microsoft. Not for offering a superior alternative. Microsoft is still desperately fishing for that. I blame Microsoft for inducing Palm to commit suicide. Palm was NOT a full-scale computer and they never should have allowed Microsoft's marketing fluff to draw them into that black hole fighting against Microsoft's infinitely deep pockets.)
No thanks. One of the more miserable experiences I had last year was trying to get an Accu-Med app for the Palm working under StyleTap on an iPaq unit. Instead of porting the app to something in active development within the last three years, I was dealing with multiple levels of obsolescence.
It's little wonder another of my clients is giving Accu-Med the boot entirely in favor of a web based service living on a server in their main office. Just one update to install instead of touching every single client system. And the software doesn't look like a Win95 shell over a DOS app.
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