Gizmodo
Access, the company that through a combination of money, witchcraft, and the fact that nobody else really wanted it, got their corporate hands on the Palm OS source code a while back. Since this is same source that's used to power your Treo 650/680/700 smartphones, Palm (the company that makes the hardware) has been worried about how it could take its phones to the next OS level. That is, until now. Palm's just announced a non-exclusive agreement to license the Garnet source code for their upcoming PDA/Phones for $44 million.
This agreement gives them the right to modify the code to adapt it for smartphones, Cylons, or whatever else they decide to run the OS on. This means that when Palm makes a next-gen OS, it can shove in parts of Garnet to keep compatibility with current Palm apps so you won't have to throw away everything you already love.
FAQ [Access via Palm Info Center]
Comments
When Palm "makes" a next-gen OS? They already have one, it's called Windows Mobile, and you can buy Palm phones based on it right now.
Based on this acquisition, I'd expect Palm to have a Garnet compatibility layer running on top of Windows Mobile just in time for the next-gen Treos to ship. Kind of a bitter pill for Palm partisans to swallow, but good news for anyone who just wants their Treo to work reliably and doesn't want to be stuck with the awful Windows Mobile interface.
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