Cloudpilot, a PalmOS Emulator for the Web | Hacker News Reader

Cloudpilot, a PalmOS Emulator for the Web

cloudpilot-emu.github.io

147 pointspjmlp55 comments

I went $300 into debt to my parents when I was 9 years old for a Handspring Visor Deluxe. It had 8MB of RAM, a 16-ish MHz DragonBall processor, and ran Palm OS 3.1H3. I vaguely recall the Handspring version (H3) of the OS having a few additional goodies like a world clock and better notes app. A year or two layer my buddy Will bought a Palm Vx at a yard sale and I beamed him the Space Trader PDB because it was my favorite game.

Good times. I remember reading about the Springboard modem modules that were available and thinking how cool it would be to have the internet in your pocket and chat with friends on the go... if only I knew :-P

Someone had previously posted this short documentary about Handspring. You might enjoy it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b9_Vh9h3Ohw

Thanks for posting that, I really enjoyed watching it. I had a Treo 650 in the 2000s and loved it, despite its flaws.

I really enjoyed mine as well.

Sometimes it would just drain the battery, and gone was all my data. As a young adult, all my appointments would be gone and I was left wondering if I was forgetting an appointment.

I just discovered that the original source code of Space Trader as well as Java and C# ports are available on github.

And for Android, you have it on FDroid.

I bought an MP3 Springboard module. Friend of mine asked "Where is the 'stop' button on that thing?" "There isn't one. There's nothing to stop."

I bought a m105 from my own pocket money. I used it for years. It was neardy but I loved this thing. Later switched to Windows CE / Mobile. My God these things where powerful. First smartphone was a Web OS device for me. Never had a better Hardware keyboard device. I was SO fast on that thing. Sadly there is no up to date smartphone with a horizontal keyboard. I need it so bad for termux. Sad days... Blackberry will introduce a new phone in 2022. The priv and the keyONE do not meet my expectations regarding power.

That Palm Pre keyboard was truly something else. Sad we'll never see anything else like it.

I had the Pre2 and Pre3, those were the best phones I ever had. I can't believe they failed. At the time I also had both an iPhone and a Nexus (I was developing mobile apps) and the Pre's were my daily drivers. I even got the HP TouchPad and used that as a daily driver as well. I worked some of my web development from that tablet. It was damn great. It is a tragedy that webOS for mobile devices is gone.

Ha, I started with Windows CE "Pocket PC". An HP iPaq H1930 iirc and then a Dell Axim x50v.

These devices were really niche, to say the least. I’ve never seen another than the mines. Still, there was an astonishingly high number of available applications. Some developers from this era, especially game devs, are now great mobile devs.

Talking about games, there were some real gems on those devices. Hell, there was even an Age of Empires port. It’s sad that they are mostly lost.

I remember getting looks on the train on my commute to work playing Tomb Raider on my Pocket PC. You'd hold the device in landscape and use a combination of onscreen buttons and hardware controls. It behaved very much like the Nintendo Switch but a few years prior to the Nintendo DS (and with a larger screen too).

I loved that device.

My mum had a blue Handspring Visor, which was great for playing Bejeweled on long car journeys in 1999! At the time I used a personal organiser from Time Magazine to note down homework assignments.

In 2006, a friend at my parent's Bible study group donated an regionalised HTC Himalaya (Orange SPV M1000) running Windows Mobile 5. It was so powerful! My favourite was pPod, an iPod emulator. It could also run MSN messenger, and even though it needed a separate SDIO WiFi card to connect, it was possible continue chatting to a certain girl in California even after my bedtime XD

Is there a place like MacintoshGarden/MacintoshRepository/WinWorldPC for old Pocket PC or Palm apps? I've got a small collection (Pocket PC below):

Accessories: bkpmgr, btaudio.cab, cryptainer_le.arm.CAB, FinchSync.CAB, G7B0Keybd.ARM, GMobileSyncSetup.CAB, iPAQFoldableKeybd.ARM, Keyboard Driver.PPC300_2577.cab, NETCFv2.wm.armv4i.cab, OggSync.CAB, PocketTV.POCKETPC_ARM_POCKETGEAR_2000.CAB, SpbBackup.arm, SPB Keyboard Serial, SpbFullScreenKeyboard3.arm.cab, Stowaway Keyboard Driver.PPC300_2577.cab, Sunnysoft_BackupManager_3766_EN_build_08091.CAB, Webby200.cab, WiFiTunes.CAB, wlan11b-etsi.cab, FreqTune15setupARMSR1.EXE, PPCV16, Sunnysoft_BackupManager_3766_EN.exe Communications: AgileMessengerWMPPC.CAB, gizmo.jar, MinimoCE_0.016.cab, msn_2002.CAB, msn_2003.CAB, SJphone-PPC2003SE-303c.cab, SkypeForPocketPC_Beta.CAB Emulators, Control: AppleCE, Clicker_PocketPC_5.CAB, Mini vMac Plus, Mini vMac SE, Palm, PGPwireless for WinCE Desktop Integration, PocketIIe.PPC_ARM.CAB, PocketPuTTY.exe, pocketVNC.exe, ppcconnector.exe, RACtrlCE.cab, Remote Keyboard, rkb.PPC_ARM.CAB, Salling Clicker for Pocket PC.CAB, StyleTapDevice.cab, StyleTapDevice11003.CAB, ti83 Plus v1.03.rom, TIPocketEmulator.CAB, VNCVIEW.EXE, BibleReader_365_108, pPod, rkbsetup.exe, StyleTapSetup09150.exe, vti Factual Recall: BPeST_PPC.ARMV4.CAB, BPeST.cab, ConverterCE.ppc30_arm.CAB, lexipedia.cab, MxConv.PPC_ARM.CAB, OED, Pocket E-Sword, PocketXpdf_0.4.0.CAB, TomeRaider, Translator, BeSt, Bibles to Pocket PC, esword ppc2003setup252.exe, GNB.EXE, Pocket Oxford English Dictionary and MSDict Viewer PPC_5.10.43PG.exe, PocketOxfordEnglishDictionaryandMSDictViewerPPC_5.10.43.exe Games: AirHockeyinstall.Arm.CAB, AOE, Bejeweled-arm.exe, bejeweled-ppc-v2-51.cab, Chess_PPC.ARM.CAB, FreaK.arm.cab, GemSwap_PPC.CAB, Kevtris.CAB, pacman.PPC_ARM.CAB, PPcReversi.ARM.CAB, reversi_ppc, AOE, GemSwapPPC.exe, PacMan.exe Maps: BSGPSPDA.CAB, california.osm.bz2, CartoExploreur3CE.CAB, gmapsupp.img, GoogleMaps.CAB, GPS Speedo.exe, gpsed.ppc.cab, GPSGate, GpsPortPPC.exe, GPSTuner_v5.CAB, GPSViewer, gpsVPppc, MapAlive, mgmaps_wm, mgmaps-signed.jad, mgmaps.jad, MMPocketNav.PPC2K_ARM.CAB, MuskokaTech PathAway GPS 4.CAB, PathAway GPS 4 for Windows Mobile, PathAwayInstall.cab, Pocket Atlas-arm.arm.CAB, TomTom Taiwan, ptgmap_1 Multimedia: flash player 7_ppc_en.cab, JB_Piano.ARM.CAB, mobiolawebcam_3_1_8_wl_wm, pPod, SoftMaker Office 2006, tcpmp.pocketpc.0.72RC1.cab, vlc-0.8.5-svn-20060214-0130, VTSoundEditor, ofpw08beta.exe, PMPW04EV.EXE, pmpw06beta.exe, smcw06dict.exe, Softmaker Office 2008, Softmaker Trial Installer ofpw06ev.exe System: ActiveXPack1.PPC_ARM.CAB, CapSure.CAB, Cloudyfa_EsmertecJbed.cab, ExportContacts setup.CAB, Jbed-WM2003 Folder, mbutton.PPC_ARM.CAB, regedit.Mrln_ARM.CAB, SMS Export.cab, Ultimate Theft Alert v35 FULL with GPS and MONITOR Plugin, EZ150PPE.EXE, NETCFSetupv2.msi, Pocket PC WiFi Themes: Crossbow.tsk, iPhone Theme, Slide2UnLock1.19-WM5.cab Other: gps_tuner_5.1_code.exe, Missing_Sync_for_Windows_Mobile.app.zip, missing_sync_winmobile4.0.2.dmg, Softmaker Office, SPB Full Screen Keyboard, Taipei MGMaps, TomeRaider, TomTom, TT6 Navigator and Go, Unlocking, WM Memory Card, WM5 English

Nice collection ! You can upload all of this to archive.org

Sorry, I tried but it got taken down pretty much immediately. Feel free to reach out to me personally though! I think it's a pity that the excellent workmanship that went into that software is now no longer being recognised, because the legacy devices aren't for sale. They were good tools!

OldHandhelds.com has a whole lot of stuff.

Windows CE was really interesting, but irritating to use.

The Start Menu on such a small screen was a very weird thing. It was clear that Microsoft was uncomfortable with anything that pointed away from their mainline desktop experience, they were always trying to reassure you that this computer in your pocket was a Real Windows™ Device.

But the cleaned-up API, and the Execute In Place, and exFAT were all to the good side, slimming down to fit mobile hardware. And their communications stack was far superior to PalmOS at the time.

I loved my Palm Pilot IIIx, though. Loved the Macintosh-like API. Dead simple to make the switch to that platform if you'd written a couple of Classic Mac apps.

I've heard good things about these mini chorded keyboards you can use with your phone to avoid on-screen keyboards. Obviously nowhere near as convinient as built in, but it seems its the best we've got.

Oh other than that pinephone keyboard case, but that requires you to change phone as well

I miss my Nokia with full keyboard best experince hands down no spellcheck BS

I too had an m105. I used it in school growing up. I was really proficient with graffiti, I could write just as fast on the graffiti system as I could write in print. It also meant I had very well formatted notes for all my classes backed up on my computer. I would also write up a lot of rough drafts on my pilot to be cleaned up and finally edited on a desktop for all the papers I had to write for classes.

I later upgraded to a used CLIÉ PEG-SJ22. It was an awesome upgrade. with the high-res (320x320) color scree Just having an actual USB port on it made it so much more useful as then I could easily transfer things from school computers to home.

Author of Copilot, which became POSE (PalmOS Emulator), which became this. I love it.

https://hewgill.com/pilot/copilot/index-old.html

Ah, I wrote Zilot -- a PalmOS emulator for the Mac, in the 1990s ;-)

Thanks alot ;)

When talking about battery life and general usability, nothing beats PalmOS yet. With weeks of battery life, it just took 3~4 key press/strokes to start jogging down something or checking schedules tomorrow, etc. Nothing on Android or iOS can beat it even without counting passcode clearance.

It was truly a golden age for handhelds. TONs of apps probably because of developer friendly plus the great eco system. I always wonder what would happen if national network coverage and web apps on Palm OS were better.

I loved my Palm device! The one thing I do think modern devices get better is text input.

When the iPhone was released, I was skeptical about its soft keyboard, but I was amazed at how much faster I could type on it than I could write with Graffiti. (And I was pretty good at Graffiti -- version 1 of course, not that awful Graffiti 2 trash-tier imposter.)

Oh, Palm Vx. I miss that thing. Days of battery life, easy to use, and simple to sync.

I still write my upper-case 'E' in jot.

I miss you, PalmOS.

Had m105, still have the same endearing handwriting style.

I cringe to recall that, on a date in a Manhattan restaurant, I once showed a woman my PalmPilot. She was deeply unimpressed, and went on to marry an A-list celebrity, which only pours salt on the digital wound.

Perhaps you should lead with personality?

Hah I remember my Palm Treo so fondly. 2008 was such exciting times. I was a Jr. SysAdmin and you just couldn't be cooler than some slick PHP/MySQL/jQuery work. The Honda Civic SI of all cars had the coolest motor around and tech was at its most optimistic.

Those were the days!

Had the IBM Workpad c3 (Palm V with an IBM logo on the case). Got it second hand from a local IBM employee.

Read loads of books on it while walking to university (1 hour each way) with iSilo. Dropped it on the road once and it was barely scratched. Played too much SimCity during lectures.

And yes, some of my terrible handwriting bears a strong resemblence to Graffiti.

Upgraded at some point but didn't feel the later models were a great improvement. I really liked that monochrome screen!

Palm IIIe. Great little device I had as a kid. Sim City, Strategic Commander, some other games. BASIC, Lisp, maybe some other interpreters also?

And AvantGo web browser, which primary mode of operation was syncing pages with a desktop computer to view offline.

My first real C++ apps were written for the Palm and hotsync on the desktop

Oh the nostalgia! Every app I tried so far seems to work: Space Trader, SFCave, drawing little animations in Diddlebug... great memories :)

Space Trader.

I played that one before I knew what "Narcotics" meant, and I quickly found out why the police were so interested in my cargo.

There was also a game... Village Sim I think. You'd spend hours building up a village on a desert island (which ran persistently), hoping there were more people born by tomorrow morning. Only to find that a tornado had struck the island and all had perised except a single elderly man.

Space Trader was a time sink, I played it so much on My Palm Vx and that Blue Palm Zire 71.

Loved both, both were stolen unfortunately otherwise I would have them.

Who would steal two Palmtops from you? That is a travesty indeed.

What framework is the UI built in (the emulator, not Palm itself)? I don’t know if it’s like this because I’m on an iPhone, but it’s the most app-like web UI I’ve experienced.

It looks like Ionic https://ionicframework.com/docs/

As vblitz says: it's Ionic and Angular

I had a 2 hour train commute in 2000 - and a Palm V with a Forth (QForth?) and a copy of the SDK manual on it. Fun times! Really taught me a lot...

Palm Zire 72. It had a freakin camera!

I remember reading newest Harry Potter book on that thing.

You love those gadgets much more when you're a kid.

I still have a few photos from the 71 kicking around.

The universal remote app was fun at university student union.

Interesting that Google return 0 result for CloudpilotEmu while Bing can do that

Try just Cloudpilot ;)

I always wanted a PalmPilot when I was a kid. Seems like I finally can!

Nice. Brings back memories when I was developing apps for PalmOS!

I would love to have this as an Android App.

You can just add a link to you homescreen, and it will behave like a native app.

if only there were apps to install...

There is Wordle for PalmOS now:

https://github.com/RobbieNesmith/PalmWordle

The fact that someone still bothers to develop for Palm OS warms my heart. I haven't yet tried Wordle. I will have to give this a go on my Zire 31.

Here's the list of Palm OS installers from my parents' archives. Is there a site like WinWorldPC/MacintoshRepository/Macintosh Garden where these are shared? Let me know if you'd like any :)

ABACUS.PRC, AddressCitiesDB.PDB, AddressDB.PDB, Bejeweled!.PRC, Bejeweled.PRC, CITIESDB.PDB, Companion_NMEA_DB.PDB, Companion_Routes.PDB, Companion_Tracklog.PDB, Companion_Waypoints.PDB, ConnectionDB.PDB, Datebk3HDB.PDB, DatebookDB.PDB, DOPEWARS.PRC, DopeWarsDB.PDB, ExpenseDB.PDB, GRAFFITI.PRC, HSAdvCalcDB.PDB, Keyboard_Options.PDB, KEYBOARD.PRC, LauncherDB.PDB, MAILDB.PDB, MEMODB.PDB, NAVCOMP.PRC, NetworkDB.PDB, OldFilesDir, psysLaunchDB.PDB, Saved_Preferences.PRC, SpaceTrader.PRC, System_MIDI_Sounds.PDB, TMP--XXL.PDB, TODODB.PDB, Unsaved_Preferences.PRC, UNTITLED.PDB, VendorsDB.PDB, ______.PRC, 2nglish-French.PDB, AcidSolitaire.PRC, AddressDB.PDB, ADVN.PRC, ADVNDB.PDB, Bagels_data.PDB, BAGELS!.PRC, Bejeweled.PRC, BISMLITE.PRC, BrickBreak.PRC, CHECKERS.PRC, ChromaGames.PRC, CITIESDB.PDB, CityTimeDB.PDB, CONNECT4.PRC, CrazyballDemo_3.0.PRC, CRMASAVE.PDB, Cubik2PRC.PRC, Datebk3HDB.PDB, DatebookDB.PDB, DocsToGo.LOG.PDB, DOCSTOGO.PRC, DocsToGoDB.PDB, English-French.PDB, EUROCALC.PRC, ExpenseDB.PDB, FCPLUS.PRC, GO.PRC, GraffitiDemo.PRC, Gun_Fight.PRC, GunFightDb03fs.PDB, HARDBALL.PRC, Hot_Othello.PRC, HSAdvCalcDB.PDB, Keyboard_Options.PDB, KEYBOARD.PRC, LauncherDB.PDB, MAILDB.PDB, MEMODB.PDB, MINEHUNT.PRC, NetworkDB.PDB, OldFilesDir, OTHELLO.PRC, PICTURES.PDB, PolliGlot.PRC, PUZZLE.PRC, Religious_Studies.PDB, Saved_Preferences.PRC, SheetToGo.PRC, SheetView.PRC, SNAKE.PRC, SolitaireStats.PDB, SpaceTrader.PRC, SUBHUNT.PRC, System_MIDI_Sounds.PDB, TealPntLte.PRC, TODODB.PDB, Unsaved_Preferences.PRC, UNTITLED.PDB, Update_3.1.1.PRC, VendorsDB.PDB, WORDVIEW.PRC, WordView+.PRC, XMAS02.PDB, CardIdentifier

There's https://palmdb.net

There's lot's of them. Many are archived at https://palmdb.net , and many others are floating on the web.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com