Brighthand.com’s Ed Hardy recently tested the MotionApps Classic Palm OS emulator for webOS (http://www.motionapps.com/classic/), which is available for purchase from the App Catalog on the Pre.  The intent of this emulator is to seamlessly unite two operating systems– giving Pre owners the best of both worlds. Hardy stated:

I think of MotionApps Classic as a transitional aid. It will help long-time Palm OS users switch to the webOS, and help Palm, Inc. get the webOS off the ground.

What it’s not going to do is turn a Palm Pre into a Treo.  At the very least, you’re still going to need to use the webOS’s email software and web browser, and I’d suggest everyone who gets a Pre get accustomed to their device’s default user interface. I promise, before you know it, you’ll wonder what you ever saw in the Palm OS.

For testing purposes, he tried out Astraware Bejeweled 2 — one of the most popular games of all time — and had no complaints:

“This emulator offers impressive performance, at least as good as that offered by any physical device.”

He also gave Astraware’s My Little Tank a try and found that it ran quite well with this caveat:

Since the Palm Pre lacks the physical keys many games depend on, the on-screen ones can be much harder to use in a fast-paced game.

He concluded that for gamers who have a Palm Pre, “Classic looks like a no-brainer.”

For those wanting to hold onto their Palm OS calendar program (think Agendus), he noted that “you can. You’ll be notified of your events, even if Classic isn’t running. When an alarm goes off, the app launches itself, and you get a notification window, just as if you were using a Tungsten E.”

Pre Owners: You can find Classic Palm OS apps at the new MobiHand Classic App Store (http://classic.mobihand.com).

You can read about it here:

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Last week, there was rumblings about how Research in Motion was slowly clawing its way back into the mobile app race with the doubling of the number of apps available in its BlackBerry App World to 2,000.

Most posts about this news focused on how the number was a far cry from the 50,000 plus apps available for the iPhone from Apple’s App Store which just celebrated its one year anniversary. Stirring up iPhone-envy among BlackBerry owners isn’t helpful. Offering a viable alternative is.

According to the most recent reports, MobiHand’s On-Device BlackBerry App Store currently has nearly 2300 apps PLUS, it is the ONLY place offering nearly 5000 Themes (4,908). PLUS, PLUS– the “Deal of the Day” –where a new deeply discounted application is offered every 24 hours.

You can learn more here and here.

With the World Series of Poker (WSOP) starting this week in Las Vegas (drawing 6500 players competing for a piece of a $61 million prize pool and hoping for $8.55 million for the title), the timing seems perfect for special deals on card game apps.

Those of you with a Palm Centro or Treo running Palm OS will find reduced pricing on Aces Texas Hold’em – No Limit, Aces Blackjack, Aces Omaha – No Limit and the Aces Tournament Timer from Concrete Software.  Just $5.99 each.

And if you have a snazzy new Palm Pre, you’ll be happy to know that Aces Texas Hold’em will work on it if you have the MotionApps Classic Palm OS emulator installed.  It is available for purchase from the App Catalog on the Pre.

Another card game that will work on the Palm Pre is BlackJack Deluxe by Deluxeware. It is available for the very special price of $2.99 (usually $12.95) until the end of July.

For those who have Windows Mobile devices, Birdsoft is offering their All-In Hold ‘Em Poker – Tournament Play for the special price of $9.95.

In that same price range, just under $10, you can get many of Concrete Software’s gaming apps such as, Aces Texas Hold’em® – No Limit and Texas Hold’em with Phil Hellmuth.

For the BlackBerry, there are a number of casino-related apps.

Along with Concrete Software’s Aces Texas Hold’em, there is Win Texas Hold’em by Sprite Interactive and Poker Buddy by Origin8 Technologies that is a rich, fully featured poker tournament manager which includes a digital clock for keeping track of your tournament and blind levels while the extensive player list will make it easy to track knockouts, re-buys and add-ons. Plus, you can email your players with automatic tournament reports after the game!

The Poker and gaming apps available through MobiHand are, perhaps, the next best thing to being in Vegas.