StyleTap's Palm OS emulator officially coming to Symbian OS
By Joseph L. Flatley 
posted January 16th 2009 3:22PM
posted January 16th 2009 3:22PM
Not as exciting as an NES emulator, perhaps, but all the more useful, StyleTap's Palm OS emulator for the Symbian OS has finally been released, for real, for real -- if you rely on one of the 30,000-some apps that run on the OS (or all of them, for that matter) brace yourself for some righteous productivity. If that weren't enough, this bad boy includes enhanced display scaling, meaning that apps should look pretty good -- even scaled up to 320 x 320 resolution. And not only does StyleTap do the emulation thing, it handles most of your phone's hardware features -- including screen rotation. Are you totally psyched? We thought so.[Via Symbian Guru]
And not WebOS. How ironic.
Seriously? webOS was just released a little over a week ago, and you expect software like this to be released....before the device is out?
I really don't expect many apps from amateur developers to be released before the Pre is. I'm sure Palm fronted some money or is helping professional developers to get their software ready for the Pre launch.
I was making a joke on all the people who go "Why doesn't it have PalmOS software support!"
Come on. How many Engadget readers have an S60 phone? I'm certain it's a very small percentage(I'm part of it).
You also forgot to mention that this app costs $50. Do you guys see now why Symbian will inevitably die out? It's become a dinosaur among the other OSs and now we're just waiting for it to become extinct. Developers are moving on, Symbian lost a huge amount of marketshare and there aren't any 'big' jaw-dropping Symbian devices. Symbian is dying a slow, painful death.
Point is taken.
It's sad, but it seems to be true for North America. It seems to be shaping up to be an Android/Blackberry/Apple/Microsoft (if WM7 ever comes out) showdown. And it really sucks because there probably will never be a phone as good looking/amazing feeling/incredible to type on/responsive as my Nokia E71. Damn, that does suck.
Although it's silly to ask about how many Engadget readers have an S60 phone considering the marketing budget Nokia allots for North America.
I have an S60 phone. An E71 infact and I love it. Nothing else on the market has its unique mix of industrial design, thinness, battery life, stability, QWERTY and openness.
Looking forward to the N97 and the eventual E-series touchscreen phones from Nokia too. Symbian may have lost some market share but it's still EASILY the most popular smartphone OS on the planet.
Aaron, indeed it is currently still the most popular smartphone OS on the planet. It's currently at about 46% marketshare, but you do know what that means, don't you? Symbian has lost 26% of the smartphone market between 2006 and 2008 while the iPhone has gained 17%. Now that Palm have jumped into the equation with a product that people outside of America might actually want to buy, it's totally feasible that Symbian could be shifted many places down the smartphone marketshare table within the next 2-4 years.
And yet, it looks like Apple's marketshare will be WAY down for Q4 2008. 4mil sales compared with 6.9mil the quarter before.
And remember when everyone thought that Palm was dead? Things change fast.
I love how relevant this comment is.
Exactly. Things can change fast. Besides, I wish somebody did a survery to find out the number of Symbian device users who actually know that their phone is a 'smartphone' and bought it because of that. I'm willing to bet that it's a realtively small number.
I see children in the street with N95s. Old people with N73s(how can they possibly read anything on that tiny 2.4" screen btw?). The main reason why Symbian sells so well is because around the world, the devices are easily available on very cheap contracts. The high-end Symbian devices are bought by several consumers not for the OS, not for it being a 'smartphone' but because it's got a good camera,a high GB or MB number and it's cheap! What I'm trying to say is that if the marketshare figures were based on the number of devices sold due to somebody actually needing a smartphone, where do you think Symbian would be?
There was something in the air that night
The stars were bright, Fernando
They were shining there for you and me
For liberty, Fernando
Though I never thought that we could lose
Theres no regret
If I had to do the same again
I would, my friend, Fernando
Oh god not you again. You just really hate Nokia don't you?
S60 is fantastic, but if they're going to go with more touchscreen phones in the future, they really need to start from scratch like Palm did (or Apple, I guess).
I like my Nokia 5800 XpressMusic/Tube, but I know the Pre's WebOS looks far better, and that Palm mobiles will probably end up being far better than S60 touchscreen phones in the future.
Nokia mobile phones are absolutely fantastic pieces of hardware, but in my opinion S60 is pretty poor. It is notoriously difficult to develop for (which is probably its biggest failing in the long run), it isn't terribly stable and it can be very slow. There are some great applications available for the platform (Nokia Sports Tracker is fantastic), but as a whole it is not entirely satisfactory when set against stuff like Android.
Nokia have bought up Symbian and are turning it free and open source via the Symbian Foundation, but this may prove too little too late. There isn't that much left to attract new developers when there are things like the iPhone, Android and Pre to play with. Especially when you have to pay to have your applications signed!
well, i have a nokia N78 and i love every aspect of the phone. the music player, the browser, the camera, the 2.4 inch screen, and the gps.
you tell me how much did the iphone cost you, 200$? n78 cost me 250$ unlocked without any kind of contract.
i've tried wm6 on samsung blackjack and apple's godphone and didn't like either. the wm6 ui is horrible and apple's OS is good but the phone is unusable.
for me symbian is still the king, just count how many people hold their nokia smartphone on the street and the ones who have an iphone.
just because apple released its one touch phone that doens't make it a market leader, it copied all the functionality of the other phones on the market and still failed to produce a semi-perfect device although it could.
I have a Nokia N95 and I can't see what's wrong with Symbian, the phone does everything its supposed to do really well and there are as many apps and games for it as i want.
and @ ILoveApple:
"I wish somebody did a survery to find out the number of Symbian device users who actually know that their phone is a 'smartphone' and bought it because of that."
How many iPhone users have bought the iPhone because it's supposed to be a smartphone and how many have bought it because it's shiny and fashionable?
I have been using Nokia phones since I first ever bought a mobile. My current phone is an N82, which I really do like. This doesn't mean, however, that I am not seriously jealous about things like the App Store. Symbian has a developer ecosystem, but it could be SO much more impressive.
Hmm valid point....then I read the title of your comment....
I don't understand the "title" of your comment. GWAN?
Scaled up to 320x320.. LAME! The Palm OS supports 320x320 and even 320x480 (or 480x320).
Why do all the emulators INSIST on running at the LOW resolution of 160x160? You can't read anything clearly at that resolution! Plus the games look like crap at that resolution.
Give the emulator 320x320 native support and I will be impressed.
It might just be that it's faster to emulate at a lower resolution. It's not like these phones are exactly speed demons that they can emulate other smartphones at native resolution perfectly.
Might be useful to some people, I guess.
"There are a number of ways to migrate data from an existing PDB file to your new webOS app" from the palm website, so seems palm apps could run on the pre.
Or rather, that WebOS will be able to import some of your data. But it probably won't run legacy apps.
Now, when will Apple allow StyleTap to release their Palm OS emulation app for the iPhone & iPod Touch?!?
The same time they allow copy/paste or MMS (NEVER)
Please let it be 5800 compatible! :o
It is 5800/N97 compatible. Touchscreen and all.
ILoveApple wrote:
" What I'm trying to say is that if the marketshare figures were based on the number of devices sold due to somebody actually needing a smartphone, where do you think Symbian would be?"
So define the type of person who actually need a smartphone then? Business people for email capabilities? If that's your argument then I would say that many people that buy iPhones don't need smartphones either because then everyone would be using blackberries....
The type of person who goes into their local phone shop and tells the rep to show them smartphones only.
Try again.
I'm a Palm OS user with the Treo but don't use Nokia product, but I do remember this:
http://www.access-company.com/products/gvm/
"Garnet VM enables Nokia Nseries users to run thousands of Garnet OS (formerly Palm OS®) applications. Garnet VM supports some of the most popular applications in the mobile market including, Google Maps™, Snappermail®, DateBk5 and perennially popular games like Bejeweled®, PacMan and Sudoku. Choose from a wide variety of application types including, document processors, database managers, messaging, enhanced PIMs, life management tools, and more.
Download Garnet VM here:"
Is this relevant?
>>Not as exciting as an NES emulator, perhaps, but all the more useful, StyleTap's Palm OS emulator for the Symbian OS has finally been released
Palm OS HAS an NES emulator. And a genesis emu, and an SNES emu, and....a hundred other emulators for game systems and other computers (plus MAME).
Palm OS has been derided for 5 years now as being out of date because it didnt have multitasking - buit the iPhione doesnt have multitasking and when it came out, it was heralded as the second coming of Christ himself. And I say that as a person who think the iPhone UI is revolutionary - but the ecosystem means that 3rd party software is shit.
5 year old games on Palm OS are better than most iPhone games today. Home brew brought real, full ports of Duke Nukem 3D, the Doom series, etc., while cool original game like Warfare Inc brought us quality real-time-strategy gaming that I don't see anywhere on the iPhone - the phone that according to Apple is a better game device than a PSP. They should start with trying to beat a 10 year old PDA OS at gaming first - walk before they learn to crawl.
The iPhone is light-years ahead of Palm OS (or s60 while we are on the subject) in terms of UI - absolutely. But their rigid control over apps means that it hasn't even caught up with where Palm OS / WM / s60 were years ago as far as decent software. Apple fanboys talk about 11,000 apps. Well all three of the other OS's have considerably more - and better - apps, especially when it comes to gaming.
http://www.warfareincorporated.com/ ( for iphone )
oh btw I've got an n95 and n85... but I don't like to rant before I research