Short Cuts: Roaming the Mobile Computing Industry

Deutsche Newton Ships

Apple selected the German-speaking markets of Austria, Switzerland, and Germany as the target for the first non-English version of the Newton MessagePad. The device, which is available now at retailers, includes several features that take into account the respective cultural and business customs of its users.

As a simple example, the calendar function starts the week on Monday as a European user would expect, instead of Sunday as is the custom in North America. The handwriting recognition system and the internal dictionary can also be set specifically for each of the countries.

To help the early adopters, Apple is including a 2 MB PCMCIA card that contains several Newton software titles in German. Apple has also guaranteed that local users will receive fully qualified customer and technical support through specialty retailers such as Vobis, and Karstadt and Systematics in Germany; Vobis and Media Markt in Austria.

For more information, please contact Apple at (408) 974-1856.

New TouchPen Technology

When using a pen computing device, much of the user’s experience depends on the quality and features of the underlying digitizer technology. This will be especially true when pen computers using color displays become the standard.

Methuen, Massachusetts-based MicroTouch Systems, Inc. introduced a new pen computing digitizer on Dec 28, 1993 that hopes to advance the state-of-the-art. Dubbed the TouchPen, the digitizer features both pen and touch input and works with most flat panel display systems used on devices today.

More importantly, the TouchPen can be used with systems incorporating TFT color technology. Current electromagnetic digitizers find it difficult to work with TFT color displays because of the high amount of emitted noise.

MicroTouch claims several advantages for their TouchPen technology, including a lighter and thinner sensor that is easier to integrate into a device than traditional electromagnetic digitizers. In terms of the user experience, MicroTouch feels that stylus and hand touch provides the user with the most natural way to interact with operations ranging from handwriting and annotating, to selecting from menus and pressing buttons.

TouchPen was recently incorporated as a standard feature into NEC’s new Versa pen computer which uses a TFT display. MicroTouch will also supply TouchPen Evaluation Kits for $795.

For more information, please contact Janet Pannier of MicroTouch Systems at (508) 659-9000

ETE Teams with Sharp Minds

Even though communication was not the first thought of the Newton design team, wireless systems are nonetheless descending on the platform at an increasing rate. New among these devices is the ETE Communicator introduced by San Diego-based ETE, Inc., and Sharp Electronics Corp (the makers of the Newton Intelligence-based Sharp ExpertPad).

The ETE Communicator offers several optional capabilities including hands-free cellular voice communications, wireless digital packet radio messaging, a fax/data modem, and a global positioning system (GPS).

The device is about the size of the ExpertPad itself and fit snugly under the PDA. It adds approximately 6 ounces to the ExpertPad’s weight without the batteries and features the combined dimensions of 4.5″ x 9.25″ x 2″ (including the ExpertPad).

Using the wireless digital packet radio enables you to connect to the nationwide RAM Mobile Data network to exchange files and messages while on the road. The GPS option includes the capability of displaying your location to within 25 meters anywhere on earth.

The 14.4 Kbps fax/data modem enables you to use the existing wired telephone network for communications, however, you can choose to use the modem in conjunction with the cellular option to provide true voice, data, and fax communications from almost anywhere.

Production of the device is expected to begin in March, 1994 with a targeted price range of between $500 to $1500 depending on the communication features installed.

For more information, please contact ETE, Inc. at (619) 793-5400

PenWare Supports the Wizard

Many people believe that the new generation of PDAs are likely to make the current breed of handheld electronic organizers, such as the Sharp Wizard, obsolete. However, until we actually do get there, it’s important to note that Sharp and Casio still do a brisk business selling these useful devices at numbers that any PDA manufacturer would envy.

This information has not been overlooked by Palo Alto, California-based PenWare, makers of the PenCell pencentric spreadsheet. Together with Sharp Electronics, PenWare recently introduced a version of PenCell optimized for the Sharp pen-based Wizard organizers, including the OZ-9500, OZ-9520, OZ-9600, and OX-9600-II.

Using simple on-screen icons, users can enter data and create simple budgets and forecasts, all while maintaining file compatibility with the Microsoft Excel and Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets on their desktop. The program includes many features found on larger pen-based devices including gesture support, drag and drop data manipulation, and several styles of charts.

PenCell is delivered on an integrated circuit (IC) card that is inserted into the Wizard. The suggested retail price of the card is $229.99 and is available where Sharp Wizards are sold. For more information, please contact PenWare at (415) 858-4920.

Just What the Doctor Ordered

Paper intensive applications seem ideally suited for pen computing, and few professions produce as much paper as the health care industry.

A program entitled Penscription provides an interesting solution to this problem. Penscription is a pen-based application developed by New York-based Pen-Pro, and runs on MS and DR-DOS based devices. This includes both mobile computers and desktop systems using a mouse or light pen.

Penscription was developed by a physician with over thirty-five years of experience, and the overall structure seems to bear this out. The program uses the portrait orientation to match as closely as possible to what is already familiar to the physician.

In addition, Penscription includes a set of tabs on the right side enabling the physician to move between forms and data as needed, instead of dictating an arbitrary order to complete the work.

Upon starting the program, the physician sees a screen showing patient appointments. This leads into a screen enabling the selection of patient information, past medical history, visit summary, information about the current exam, and other data.

Penscription allows several modes of data entry, however, good use of menu selection, and button pressing minimizes the amount of writing required. The physician is also free to enter handwritten notes and drawings.

Physicians can also avoid much time consuming data entry by having the program automatically fill in demographic data on prescriptions, lab requests, and other common forms.

Data is stored in the common dBase format for import into most desktop database applications. For more information, please contact Pen-Pro at (212) 675-7402.

New Software Titles for Newton

StarCore, the software publishing and distribution group of Apple, used the San Francisco MacWorld conference as a forum to announce 12 new software titles for Newton compatible devices.

The announcement brings the total number of packages either published or distributed by StarCore to 22, 13 of which are published by StarCore, and the remaining 9 packages are distributed from third-party software developers under the StarCore affiliate-label program.

The new titles include the following:

• Money Magazine Financial Assistant – helps calculate financial decisions.
• Economic World – facts and figures for more than 60 countries.
• Time Out – a guide to London.
• Dyno NotePad – an outlining tool.
• PresenterPad – a portable prompter for presentations.
• PocketCall – gives access to on-line communications services.

Other titles, with more or less self-explanatory names, include: Solitaire and Other Card Games, DrawPad, Jig Saw Puzzle Strategy Game, TaxPro, Personal Time & Billing, and Silicon Casino.