I know the title is a little confusing. Please humor me. I have been in a conumdrum as of late and while I have since resolved my quandary I will explain one of the solutions I was considering. I have been a Palm user for quite a long time having moved over from the Newton platform back in 2001 or therabouts. It was a gradual change as I had, despite its size, brought my MessagePad 2100 everywhere with me. I had a Palm Personal but only for a short while. It wasn't until I bought my first smartphone, the Kyocera QCP 6035 that I started to realize the true merits of being able to have all my contacts, all my notes, all my tasks AND be able to download email on the fly as well as surf the web. Oh yeah, I also made the occasional phone call. I not only got to have my cake and eat it, too, I had ice cream with a cherry on top as well. I was one happy boy.
It wasn't until recently when I began to question my needs and contemplated moving over to a Pocket PC (just so you know, I'm staying with Palm...for the time being). Why? I was skeptical as to Palm's state of affairs, I saw nothing of Cobalt on the horizon and Access was not so forthcoming with news as to their move to Linux.
Pocket PC was not a bad choice but I was faced with a problem. The same problem I had when I moved over from Newton OS to Palm OS. In the past several years I had invested an inordinate amount of money on software and was loathe to have to find counterparts for a Pocket PC? 1) How was I to find the right software and 2) Geez I already spent so much! and 3) I would miss my Palm apps.
Well luckily nothing came of it and I decided to stay with my trusty little Treo. But what would I have done? Well had I moved over I would have stayed with Palm albeit a Palm Treo 700w running Windows Mobile and a little known application called StyleTap. (Drumroll please) What is StyleTap? Glad you asked, I've had you in suspense for too many paragraphs. From their website:
"StyleTap® Platform allows you to run applications (and games!) originally written for Palm OS handhelds on your Windows Mobile Pocket PC. With more than 20,000 applications for the Palm OS platform available – many of them free – you will be able to do so much more with your Windows Mobile device.
StyleTap Platform is fast, compact and comes with everything you need. Just add your favorite third-party applications for Palm OS platform and you're ready to go!"
How awesome is that? I remember hearing about it and was pleasantly surprised when it turns out the software is out and ready for use. Here is the perfect solution to being able to move to a Windows Mobile device such as a Palm Treo 700w or 750 AND still be able to keep and use the Palm programs I have come to love. Well, as neat and simple as that solution is, I won't have to try it out but I'm hoping that for those of you who do have this same problem I had, maybe you'll find this a nice compromise. Let me know.
At any rate, as I said I'm sticking with my Palm OS Treo for the time being. Surprisingly the announcement of the new iPhone from Apple gave me a little faith that Palm and Access will hold their own. Nothing like a little competition to stir up the pot. I could go on but that's for another article. Until then if you want to give it a try, you can download a 14 day trial of StyleTap from their website at: http://styletap.com/