Scribbles

Scriptel Holding, Inc. and Symbios Logic. —Hoping to body-surf part of the exploding World Wide Web, the co-developers of the WriteTouch pen and touch screen technology announced at COMDEX that they will be supporting the personal data conferencing capabilities that are part of Netscape Navigator’s CoolTalk and Microsoft Internet Explorer’s NetMeeting. Using their technology, people will be able to manipulate information on the shared whiteboard and manage the data conferencing applications using a cordless electronic pen.

The companies see WriteTouch as being suitable for integration in a range of platforms supporting this soon-to-be critical task, including notebooks, pen tablets, desktop systems, and even overhead projectors, an example of which the company demonstrated at COMDEX. WriteTouch is designed to work with today’s color TFT displays, and allows users to use finger and pen touch essentially interchangeably to best perform functions such as menu selection, Web browsing, and data input. For more information, please contact Symbios Logic at 1-800-856-3093, or at www.symbios.com

“Pretty soon, even your toaster may be connected to the Internet, perhaps allowing you to surf the Web while waiting for your whole wheats to gently brown.”

Socket Communications. Anticipating that users of Microsoft’s new Windows CE will want to use their new handhelds for more than just document creation and scheduling, the Newark, California-based company announced a new version of its PageCard Wireless Messaging System that enables people to leverage their HPC for use as a sophisticated alphanumeric pager.

Using PageCard as a stand-alone device, users can be receive and read messages just as they would using a conventional pager. However, when connected to the HPC using the PC Card slot, information is automatically directed into the Windows CE inbox using software provided as part of the package. The system also include software called PageSoft Pro that operated on any Windows-based desktop computer and enables people to create and send messages via a modem or through a paging network service provider.

GTE is bundling the PageCard with its nationwide wireless paging service for $29.95 per month. For more information, please contact Socket Communications at 1-510-744-2700, 1-510-744-2727 (fax).

Motorola. Pretty soon, even your toaster may be connected to the Internet, perhaps allowing you to surf the Web while waiting for your whole wheats to gently brown. That may be a slight exaggeration, but Motorola’s Semiconductor Products Sector recently announced a reference design that allows system manufacturers to incorporate Internet capabilities into commercial and consumer products with less fuss and at lower cost.

The company’s first design is called WebRef, and is based on industry-standard semiconductors together with the home-grown MPC800 series of embedded Power PC microprocessors. Motorola is hoping that by seeding the industry with a reference design, manufacturers will be more inclined to integrate Internet communication capabilities into a greater range of applications. WebRef offers a flexible design that allows the manufacturer to select from numerous display, communication, media, memory, processor, and peripheral options.

Panasonic Industrial Company. The Battery Sales Group within the company has announced plans to develop a new expansion card specification that is suitable for smaller electronic devices including PDAs and palm-size digital cameras. Dubbed the Panasonic SmallPC Card, it will be approximately half the size of today’s PCMCIA standard. Like PCMCIA, it will include support for both memory and communication features. Panasonic expects 2 and 4 MB configurations to be available by second quarter 1997. SanDisk, the Flash storage pioneer, recently debuted a new development called Double Density Flash which doubles the storage capacity while reducing costs. The technology, developed in partnership with Matsushita Electronic Corp. (MEC), stores two bits of data instead of one in each Flash cell. The effect is an increase of about 10% in the physical size, a decrease in the read times, but only 1/4 of the original write speed. SanDisk expects to be able to build a 20 MB FlashDisk card using only three 64 Mbit chips and a controller.

Nikon has developed a PC Card-based digital camera that is capable of recording not only a 512 x 480 pixel image, but also allows the photographer to write digital ink notes on the back of the device using a small pen.

Melard Technologies has announced the SCOUT All Terrain Subnotebook that features pen-based monochrome as well as TFT color displays. The device is designed to incorporate wide area wireless and is packaged in a rugged, lightweight case.

Phoenix Technologies Ltd. and its PICO Group introduced PicoRay, a family of high-speed infrared software products that provide wireless data transfer capabilities at speeds up to 4 Mbps, complying with the new IrDA (Infrared Data Association) standard.

Semiconductor manufacturer AMD recently added a 32 MB model to its D-Series of Flash memory cards. The cards are based on the company’s 16 megabit Flash memory device and feature AMD’s 5-volt only Flash technology. Housed in Type I PC Cards, the D-Series is suitable for a wide range of applications, and is available in 4, 8, and 20 MB densities in addition to the new card.

TDK Systems, Inc. revealed its latest versions of the 33.6 Kbps V.34 Global Networker 3410 and 3412 PC Cards that incorporate a data/fax modem with a LAN adapter for both 10BaseT and 10Base2 Ethernet connections. TDK bills the card as the first modem/LAN combination card that does not require an external dongle for international connections.