StyleTap Officially Coming to the iPhone and iPod Touch

Posted By: Ryan Kairer Friday, May 30, 2008 12:01:03 PM

StyleTapStyleTap today officially confirmed that they plan to bring a version of its StyleTap CrossPlatform environment to the iPhone and the iPod touch platform. The move will essentially bring thousands of Palm OS apps over to the new iPhone platform.

Back in February StyleTap released a video demo of the StyleTap running Palm OS apps on a iPod Touch. The company says they have been overwhelmed by the level of interest and the video has been viewed over 800,000 times.

StyleTap Palm iPhone"The iPhone is one of the hottest new mobile devices out there," said Gregory Sokoloff, CEO of StyleTap Inc., "And the response to our video has convinced us that many, many consumers, and companies, will eagerly jump at the change to buy iPhone devices if they can continue to run their must-have applications."

According to the company technically, StyleTap CrossPlatform is an excellent fit with the iPhone, as the powerful processor and large screen allows applications written for Palm OS devices to run at full speed and at full screen resolution. The iPhone touch screen technology works in a very natural way with mobile applications originally designed for touch screen devices.

Further information about the product, including how it will be marketed and sold, will be made available in early July 2008 according to the company. StyleTap will also be on hands at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, CA from June 9-13, 2008, and will be available to meet with mobile application developers interested in learning more about StyleTap CrossPlatform for the Apple devices.

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Hello Touch

PacManFoo @ 5/30/2008 3:48:29 PM # Q
Goodbye Palm! Good luck with that smartphone thing.

PDA's Past and Present:
Palm TX (Number 2)
Palm - IIIxe, Vx, M500, M505, Tungsten T, TX
Handspring - Edge, Platinum, Deluxe
Sony - SJ22, UX50
Casio-EM500
Apple - MP110, MP2000, MP2100
RE: Hello Touch
LiveFaith @ 5/31/2008 11:07:17 AM # Q
This would be the final nail ini Palm's coffin, but I think all the nails have already been used. Oh well.

Palm OS apps on iPhone. Sounds really interesting. But I have a lot of initial concerns about such usefulness due to ...

No iPhone stylus and Palm apps designed for one
No SD expansion and apps written for it
No serial connect
No IR (does anyone care?)
Hotsync data

... these are my initial concerns. Hey, if they pull this off in a serious way, then I might jump myself. Get HVGA apps workin full screen in landscape / portrait and I'll be blown away.


Pat Horne

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Awesome.

jvburdick @ 5/30/2008 5:23:02 PM # Q
Palm's answer, "Just keep waiting guys. We've got something BIG coming!" Any takers?

Seriously, I know several folks that will definitely make the jump to an iPhone if they can still use their Palm apps. This will hurt Palm who is already hurting from their dino-OS and nothing stellar in their products.

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I'm in

swieder @ 5/30/2008 6:18:31 PM # Q
I could see switching from my Treo 680 to an iPhone. Having PalmOS emulation would be fantastic. I can keep my favorite Palm app, Datebk5, and start using some iPhone apps for video, music and pics.

The VPN on the iphone will earn it approval by my companies security group.

I am moving to iPhone 2.0.

RE: I'm in
Ronin @ 5/30/2008 8:22:54 PM # Q
you would be able to use DateBk5 but without any data. Unless you also plan on copying over the native Palm calendar database file and have no plan on syncing any changes to the file to your desktop.

In the Spirit of Umoja,
Ronin
RE: I'm in
mikecane @ 5/30/2008 9:01:33 PM # Q
Eh. There will be some way to sync. It simply won't involve wires anymore. Or Palm Desktop.

And gee, you know, at some point there will be *iPhone apps* that will offer more features than whatever palmOS legacy apps people are holding onto.

So, goodbye Palm!

RE: I'm in
swieder @ 5/31/2008 6:53:56 PM # Q
No problem to copy over the Palm Calendar database. I always enter my appointments via the Treo and never use the Palm desktop app. As long as I can back up the calendar file through some backup program that would be fine.

Pimilco has been teasing Datebk5 users with some new development. iPhone needs a better calendar. Maybe Datebk5 will run on iPhone natively or through a browser.

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How many 'taps' will it take?

TooMuch @ 5/30/2008 6:56:53 PM # Q
The problem with the iPhone is that it already takes too many taps to do similar tasks as on a Treo. So, when you install ST, how many extra taps will that take.

ST is fine if you do not need to regularly run Palm apps throughout the day. However, if you need to use Palm apps regularly it will seem like a gimmick that gets old very quickly.

RE: How many 'taps' will it take?
justauser @ 5/30/2008 7:45:29 PM # Q
This app just eases the transition to another platform. Long term I hope I can dump all of my Palm specific apps for native apps on the iPhone. This app is just a safety net.

I have bought a heap of Palm apps over time. But I scan through my 680 and can't see much that would prevent me from crossing over if I can still access some of the better ones (I'd buy StyleTap just to run eReader until Fictionwise decide to support the iPhone natively)

RE: How many 'taps' will it take?
critic @ 5/30/2008 10:30:40 PM # Q
As I sit here looking at my soon-to-be EOL-ed Treo 700p, I realize that the only app that I use regularly that I'd miss on an iPhone is - and this might sound odd, but... - Metro. I've been doing a lot of business travel, and I like having the transit calculator at my fingertips without having to rely on a network connection. StyleTap would help me transition to a new platform and not lose the app.

Counting the days until June 9...

--
What do you think, sirs?

RE: How many 'taps' will it take?
bulls96 @ 5/31/2008 2:00:05 AM # Q
yeah... just how is the experience of Palm apps on Styletap?

I havent heard anything positive about it to be honest... I heard even the Nokia Garnet emulator is having compatibility issues.

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Arsenic and old lace

Foo Fighter @ 5/30/2008 9:07:16 PM # Q
God yes! How I've longed to run a 1998 mobile platform on my 2008 iPhone. Goodbye Safari, hello Blazer! Now pass me the Vodka and soda crackers.

--------
Tech writer, weblogs inc. http://www.tuaw.com
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Couple questions

hkklife @ 5/30/2008 10:54:01 PM # Q
Couple of quick questions off the top of my head. I've never played around with StyleTap on a WM device so forgive me if these questions have already been addressed elsewhere:

1. How will pin-point Graffiti gestures & stylus taps translate to jabs with oversized thumbs? The iPhone screen isn't THAT bad!

2. How will d-pad & hard app button translation be done? Via some kind of small DIA area bar? Via MultiTouch finger swipes & gestures?

3. Will apps that absolutely require wireless connectivity (Tryda, Pocket Express etc) work with the Apple TCP/IP stack etc?

4. Will we be able to "partition" off a chunk of the Apple device's internal storage to use as a logical SD slot drive?

In theory, this is certain to be, oh, just one of about six or seven slaps to the face endured by Palm management in the span of about 60 days (BB Bold, BB Thunder, iPhone 2.0, SE Xperia X1, improvements to the Garnet VM on Nokia tablets, Palm stock going from "hold" to "sell", the horrid response online to the 800w "leaks")

But in practice, I can forsee a TON of apps (especially older legacy ones) being broken due to any number of the above issues. Then combine that with the loss of IR, serial connectivity etc. For the average prosumer-type user this is no big deal and ST + 3G iPhone may certainly be the right catalyst to take the last bit of wind out of Garnet's sails. But for companies thinking of deploying a fleet of iPod Touches to employees in the field needing to run some old but expensive custom software....better to just stock up on TX's!


Pilot 1000->Pilot 5000->PalmPilot Pro->IIIe->Vx->m505->T|T->T|T2->T|C->T|T3->T|T5->Zodiac 2->TX->Verizon Treo 700P->Verizon Treo 755p

RE: Couple questions
danceman @ 5/31/2008 8:26:02 AM # Q
What about hotsync? Does it use itunes?

RE: Couple questions
hotpaw4 @ 6/1/2008 3:22:54 PM # Q
Graffiti text entry using finger tip gestures works just fine. I used the POSE emulator from a laptop trackpad for lots of development, button testing and text entry. However Graffiti text entry would not follow the Apple UI guidelines, and might run afowl of Xerox and Palm (or PalmSource/Access) patents.

Aside from StyleTap for PalmOS apps, I'd love to see a Graphaid/Jot/ScreenWrite/TealScript-like gesture text input alternative to the on-screen keyboard for regular iPhone apps.

RE: Couple questions
gmayhak @ 6/2/2008 10:48:46 AM # Q
Maybe this, with StyleTap, is the Palm we've been waiting for?
http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/products/mobilephones/overview/x1?cc=GB,US&lc=en,en

A step above iphone Mike ;-)

Gary

Tech Center Labs

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What about the SDK restrictions?

MegaManXcalibur @ 5/31/2008 6:24:37 PM # Q
On thing that StyleTap doesn't seem to be taking into consideration is the same thing Sun didn't when they said they would release a Java virtual machine. The license agreement for the iPhone SDK specifically forbids any application from calling outside code. This effectively means you can't run any form of emulation, translation, or interpretation.

In the case of StyleTap they are emulating Palm OS and they need to call the Palm OS programs and run them. Those programs our considered outside code as far as the license agreement is concerned. Because of this they won't be able to sell their application on the iTunes store which as Apple already stated is the only place they are going to allow users to obtain applications from.

I would like to know if Apple recently changed that policy or if StyleType has some other way around it.

RE: What about the SDK restrictions?
hotpaw4 @ 6/1/2008 3:07:16 PM # Q
According to reports on various Mac rumor sites, the iPhone SDK license forbids even the development of emulators or interpreters (StyleTap includes a 68k emulator), much less the distribution through any official store. The only legal way around this might be with a separate (and perhaps confidentially) agreement or license negotiated directly with Apple. But IANAL.
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