PalmSource Gives a Look at Palm OS Version 5.3

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PalmSource has posted Palm OS V 5.3 in the seeding area of its developer site HERE. You can only access this if you have a login to the developer site. This is an early version, and no indication that it will be available any time soon, but there are some important capabilities being added.

This is the first version of Palm OS that has a virtual input area API within the OS. In prior versions, manufacturers like Sony had to develop their own API for a virtual input area. Another key feature of V 5.3 is that it supports displays with 240x320 pixels of resolution. This is the same resolution as all the Pocket PC devices. Palm has always been a bit behind the Pocket PC crowd on screen resolution, and this may help rectify that. In fact, V 5.3 supports 320x480, 240x320, and 160x240.

This gives us a little glimpse of things to come in the ongoing battle of pdaPhone platforms.