Touch one icon on the new Palm Pre’s screen and you’ll be transported back in time, able to run over 30,000 old Palm OS applications.
Classic is the name of the software which will run the old applications in an emulation layer reminiscent in both name and purpose of the Classic that Apple used to ease the transition from OS 9 to OS X. Classic won’t run everything for the good old days, but it will cope with almost everything and the developer — Motion Apps — will be releasing a list of compatible applications.
There’s even more good news. Thanks to a tasty combination of Moore’s Law and a little bit of time, applications will run faster than they did before. Those used to the Treo 700p will see a doubling of speed.
This shows just one more difference between the philosophy at Palm and the philosophy at Apple. Can you imagine the nit-picking App Store testers approving a Newton emulator for the iPhone? Of course not.
Back to the future! [Motion Apps via the Twitter]
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