StyleTap Platform Version 1.0 Released

Posted By: Ryan Tuesday, October 31, 2006 11:24:10 AM

StyleTap Platform Version 1.0 is now available. StyleTap is a Palm OS emulator that allows users to run thousands of Palm OS applications without changes on Windows Mobile Pocket PC PDAs and phones. The company also announced plans for future released on the Symbian and Microsoft Smartphone platforms.

Styletap Palm OS Emulator The StyleTap software includes everything necessary to run most applications and games written for any version of Palm OS (including version 5 applications that use ARMlets). It supports virtually all Windows Mobile Pocket PC devices, including phones with square screens (like the popular Palm Treo 700 series) and PDAs with high-resolution VGA screens, in portrait or landscape mode. Programs run at full speed, even animated games and multimedia applications. Network applications work great through WiFi, serial or USB connections. Infrared (IR) and Bluetooth communications are also supported. You can even cut and paste between Palm OS-based applications and native Windows Mobile-based applications on the same handheld device.

Applications written for Palm OS run, unmodified, on StyleTap Platform. If they wish, application developers can extend programs that are fully compatible with Palm OS by using StyleTap APIs that optimize execution speed and the user experience on Windows Mobile devices. Direct access to native libraries is available for specialized applications.

"Users from around the world purchased the preview version of StyleTap Platform, and we used their feedback to make version 1.0 faster and even more robust and capable," said Gregory Sokoloff, CEO and co-founder of StyleTap Inc. "Long-time Palm OS users are thrilled to continue running their favorite Palm OS applications on their new Windows Mobile devices, while existing Windows Mobile users are delighted with the vast library of additional applications that StyleTap Platform makes available to them."

StyleTap Platform can be downloaded and purchased online for US$49.95. A free 14-day trial is available and email and web-based support is included. Anyone who purchased a preview version can upgrade to version 1.0 at no charge.

The company has announced that a corporate version of StyleTap Platform will be eventually be released that will include support for barcode and RFID scanners and other hardware-specific capabilities. They company is also working on ports of the platform for Symbian OS devices and Windows Mobile for Smartphones.

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Not worth the money!!!!!!

JSwinden @ 10/31/2006 3:57:53 PM #

It took these guys well over a year to go from beta to version 1.0. And they still have not figured out how to display graphics designed for 320x320 screens on 240x320 PPC screens. Every application I tried that has a graphical interface was totally unusable with this POS. Their response for over a year is that if developers will modify their programs to run in StyleTap, then they will run correctly. That is as unreasonable of a statement as I've ever heard. For $49 StyleTap should be able to run PalmOS apps without any modifications. I think these guys need to learn how to program or take their pathetic POS off the market.

I advise against purchasing this garbage unless you try it out first. If it works for your apps, great. But don't expect it to work on apps that use graphics.

Thanks,

Jack Swinden

See my PDA themes and skins at: www.JackSwinden.com

Standalone apps maybe

palmdoc88 @ 10/31/2006 5:55:42 PM #

If Styletap does not integrate with the PDA's PIM - calendar, contacts, tasks etc. then its useless for me....

http://palmdoc.net

RE: Standalone apps maybe

Numlock @ 10/31/2006 6:41:05 PM #

Seems like they don't include them for legal reasons, but I'm not even sure how this app is legal (any they sell it) in the first place.

RE: Standalone apps maybe

skeezix @ 11/2/2006 3:47:45 PM #

Just an FYI -- its an emulator; emulation is, and always has been, fully legal. I can't speak for StyleTap but I can speak as a emulation author in general. One must assume they're not including Palm OS in the application.. merely interpret the 68000 code (a fully published thing by Motorola, otherwise no one could code for 68000s :) and map Palm OS API calls to corresponding Pocket PC calls, or their own variants or the like.

You'd have to ask them, but I'd imagine its 100% their own code.

jeff

The Shadow knows!

Looking to the future

bobatstyletap @ 11/2/2006 12:22:55 AM #

Many application developers (including developers of some of the most popular applications) are working with us at StyleTap to ensure that their applications are StyleTap compatible. One of main things that we are encouraging developers to do (and many have told us that they are in the process of doing this) is to provide versions of their bitmaps (and custom fonts if they use them) that will optimize the appearance of their applications on QVGA and VGA displays.

In most cases, this involves no code changes. Most modern applications already provide single and double density bitmaps/custom fonts and they only need to add a one-and-a-half density version (for QVGA) and optionally a triple density version (for VGA) as well.

In addition to optimizing their appearance when running under StyleTap, it is likely that this work would have had to be done for future ALP devices anyhow.

Our goal has been not only to run existing applications, but to provide a way for application developers to optimize the appearance on whatever device their application is running on and to provide a future growth path for these applications.

It is our intention to help grow the whole software ecosystem and not just preserve the past.

As for integration with the Pocket PC PIM applications, we are working on this. After all, we need something to do for Version 2.0 !

Regards,

Bob Chew
StyleTap Inc.

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