For a while now, StyleTap's eponymous application has allowed users to run most of the more than 30,000 Palm OS applications currently available on a Pocket PC. That software is now available in a preview version for Windows Mobile Smartphones, such as the Cingular 3125, Motorola Q, T-Mobile Dash and the Samsung Blackjack.

With StyleTap, Palm software appears and operates on a Windows Smartphone just like native Windows Mobile programs do. You can even cut and paste between Palm and Windows Mobile applications on the same handheld.

It runs third-party applications written for all editions of the Palm OS, including version 5 applications that use ARMlets. Network applications work through Wi-Fi, serial or USB connections. Infrared and Bluetooth communications are also supported.

While it is great that any Windows Mobile user can now run Palm OS applications, we think the software is a particular boon to mobile device users who have made the switch from a Palm device (such as the Treo 650) to a Pocket PC or Windows Smartphone. Now they won't completely lose their - often hundreds of dollars worth - software investment.

While Palm applications will run unmodified with StyleTap, the company is offering developers StyleTap APIs that optimize performance.

Also, StyleTap for Windows Smartphones greatly increases the number of applications available for these devices, as there is far less software available for Microsoft-based smartphones than Pocket PCs.

StyleTap supports the landscape screen orientation favored by many of newer devices. It also provides a display cursor controlled by the 5-way navigation button as a substitute for a touch screen, which Windows Smartphones lack.

"The big problem in the mobile world is that it gets more and more fragmented as major vendors bring out more and more devices that are incompatible in large and small ways with the other devices on the market," said StyleTap CEO Gregory Sokoloff. "Software applications that add great utility to these smartphones and PDAs tend to run on a diminishing proportion of these devices, because the developers cannot afford to re-engineer their applications for every new device that appears.

"The result is bad for consumers who get less useful devices and bad for developers who get smaller markets for their products. StyleTap seeks to counter this trend by enabling a diverse set of devices to run the same software applications with no re-engineering required." Sokoloff added

Sokoloff said StyleTap plans address the Symbian OS in the future.

Those who buy the preview version of StyleTap for Windows Mobile Smartphones ($49.95) will get a free upgrade to the full edition when it is released.