StyleTap to bring Palm support to iPhone

[Joel]

TORONTO, Canada, May 30, 2008 – StyleTap Inc. today announced plans to bring to market a version of StyleTap® CrossPlatform for the iPhone™ and the iPod® touch, which will instantly allow over 20,000 mobile applications to run on these popular devices. Further information about the product, including how it will be marketed and sold, will be made available in early July 2008.

Read More (http://blogs.styletap.com/styletapnews/2008/05/styletap-announces-plans-to-bring.html#)

[Arc Light]

Oh my, this is huge news. The thought of being able to use all of these great Palm apps on the Iphone or Touch would be fantastic. This maybe the reason to finally look at replacing my loved T3!!!

Thanks for the heads up!

[pruss]

I suppose this will require jailbreaking or something like that, because from what I heard the EULA on the iPhone SDK doesn't allow for software that allows you to load unapproved interpreted code, and PalmOS applications would count as such?

[CliePet]

also Engadget thread: http://www.engadget.com/2008/05/30/styletaps-palm-os-emulator-officially-coming-to-iphone-and-ipod/

re: Jailbreak commentary
The homebrew/jailbreak community is small and strange, and not worth a press release from a real company ;->
Looks more like they are talking to Apple and will come out with an official app (probably sold through iTunes). As mentioned the standard SDK rules don't allow emulators, but they can always strike a deal with Apple -- especially after the Java VM flap ( http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/14/Suns-plan-for-Java-on-iPhone-could-hit-roadblock_1.html ).

Of course for some time, anyone could have written a Palm emulator to run on a jailbroken iPhone/iPodTouch, without Apple's cooperation
(as discussed on the April 1 thread here - http://www.1src.com/forums/showthread.php?t=143197 )

It will be interesting to see how well it works in practice (especially with the finger oriented touch screen)

[dmitrygr]

finger != stylus

[Greek]

StyleTap Inc. will be attending next Apple Dev's conference, so I guess they will have the OK form uncle Steve. They will probably be one of the first programs certified with Apple's requirements. Unless the program eats too much resources or does too much on the background...

Regards,

[pruss]

Well, if they allow it, this will nicely open up the possibility of running at least some unapproved applications. :-)

[cms]

hello DocstoGo on an iphone :D

I actualy do not use my sylus that often. i normaly use my fingers. you probably wont find real powerfu ldrawing apps on the iphone though

[alt236]

I wonder how they are going to do VFS access.
AFAIR the iPhone SDK does not allow access to Flash Storage of the device.

[alt236]

I suppose this will require jailbreaking or something like that, because from what I heard the EULA on the iPhone SDK doesn't allow for software that allows you to load unapproved interpreted code, and PalmOS applications would count as such?

I guess you mean this clause:

3.3.2 An Application may not itself install or launch other executable code by any means, including without limitation through the use of a plug-in architecture, calling other frameworks, other APIs or otherwise. No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application except for code that is interpreted and run by Apple’s Published APIs and built-in interpreter(s).

Yup, it looks like StyleTap breaks the EULA, unless they managed to strike a deal (or get permission -unlikely) with apple.

[pruss]

Yes, that's what I meant. I suppose one might get around this by not downloading the PalmOS applications to the phone, but installing them in some other way, but I doubt that is practicable.

[alt236]

Yes, that's what I meant. I suppose one might get around this by not downloading the PalmOS applications to the phone, but installing them in some other way, but I doubt that is practicable.

It still doesn't get around the "An Application may not [...] launch other executable code by any means" part...

In any case, if this is legit and apple approved, it would imply that there is a multi tier system regarding the SDK and what apple lets you do with it.

It would be interesting (but VERY doubtful for many reasons) if apple asked styletap for the product :p.

[pruss]

It still doesn't get around the "An Application may not [...] launch other executable code by any means" part...

Interpreting may not count as launching. :-) But if it was all interpreted, it would mean that Styletap would not be able to have armlet support.

[alt236]

You mean because an emulator is technically interpreting the binary code of another system when executing an app, right?
In which case it's cheeky but could possibly work as a workaround :p (especially since the use of an 'and' instead of an 'or' in "No interpreted code may be downloaded and used in an Application" is an interesting oversight :p)

I guess for the armlets, it does become execution instead of interpreting...

[pruss]

Well, they do have to allow interpreting of non-downloaded code, since an app might be partially implemented in an interpreted language.

Here's one interesting question: What counts as "interpreted code"? A PDF file could be argued to be code for generating an image, for instance. (And, certainly, a PostScript file would, since PostScript is a complete programming language.)

[alt236]

Here's one interesting question: What counts as "interpreted code"? A PDF file could be argued to be code for generating an image, for instance. (And, certainly, a PostScript file would, since PostScript is a complete programming language.)

Depends on how technical you want to be I guess.
PDF, PS and even Office files can seen as interpreted code, while a BMP or TXT file would not.

A broad definition would be that if a file contains instructions which need to be followed by another program in order to execute it or dislpay its intended contents then it is interpreted code. <-Disclaimer: Personal definition :)

Of course in systems where no direct H/W access is allowed or possible (due to a HAL), the kernel and the drivers are interpreting the generic application code to its necessary binary equivelant to drive the hardware at hand. Essentially, you are using a virtual machine and almost all user land code and files can be considered interpreted in one form or another.

And of course, we need to distinguish between a CS person's definition of what interpreted code is to what a lawyer would say...

[CliePet]

> I wonder how they are going to do VFS access.
Although you don't have direct access to the raw file system (on the flash drive), you have APIs to store data. You will need that for saving the data heap between runs of the PalmOS environment (where Palm 68K programs and other data are stored)
"VFS" extra data access is not strictly necessary. Most programs will work using only the standard system and data heaps.
BTW: Some emulators do a fake "VFS" by allocating a big block of data (and partitioning it themselves). All data remains local to the PalmOS environment. You can't break in or break out. A special program is needed to install data (either to the data heap or the fake "VFS" storage) - like HotSync.

re: "interpreting" and EULA
I think everyone agrees that the standard iPhone SDK prohibits this kind of apps. They need special permission (like the Java case).
Apple gets right of refusal, for technical or marketing reasons. I suspect they (Apple) will only permit the StyleTap app if it is properly 'sandboxed' to prevent access to the rest of the system (it is an interpreter after all), and it meets their goals for the iPhone, in this case a PalmOS PDA killer ?->

[sseale44]

> in this case a PalmOS PDA killer ?->
Not unless it supports conduits... the PPC versions don't so I doubt the iPhone verison will either.

Steve