Motorola to aquire Starfish. On 13Jul98, Motorola Inc. announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Starfish Software, Inc., creators of the Rex connected organizer. Pending regulatory approvals, all Starfish technology, intellectual properties, products, and services will become part of Motorola. Starfish will be an independent wholly owned subsidiary of Motorola. As part of the agreement, Philippe Kahn, chariman and CEO of Starfish, will join Motorola as the president of Starfish and will be an integral member of Motorola's senior management team. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed. Web casts of the announcement can be viewed at www.motorola.com or www.starfish.com.
The "Handheld & PDA Form 1998: Utility Industry" conference will be held 19-21Aug98 in Denver, Colorado. For more information you can call 415-641-2450.
Ruksun Software Technologies has announced that Socket Communications has certified their suite of Windows CE savvy Internet savvy software (FTP, Telnet, IMAP, News, etc.) to run on Socket's Low Power Ethernet Card (LP-E Card) for Windows CE.
PageMart Wireless has reportedly begun shipping their 3Com PalmPilot pager card called the "Synapse" that was jointly developed by PageMart, 3Com's Palm Computing, and Motorola. The pager works with all current PalmPilot devices on the market, and is priced at just under US$170 (order via 888-318-2010).
The PC Week published on 06Jul98 has a couple of interesting handheld related news articles: 1) There is a big article about the new Nokia, Ericsson, Motorola, and Psion "handheld standards" effort they are starting under an umbrella company called "Symbian" on page 47; and 2) There are two short news blurbs also on page 47 that examine the new Affinity Systems Visara Windows CE terminal, and Fujitsu-ICL Systems new DOS based handheld called TeamPad 7100.
Power Media has announced the introduction of a new Palm OS adventure game called "Island Adventure" by Kyle Poole that is being bundled free to folks who purchase two other software titles from PowerMedia.
Don Vollum reports a "special" price drop in version 3.1 of Innovative Computer Solutions' (ICS) NewtCase to US$29.95 (SRP is US$49.95). The offer is good for a limited time and only via direct order from PelicanWare. You can order or learn more via 800-655-6398.
JRAd Consulting has announced the release of version 2.3 of Palmedic -- their patient management software for the Newton family of handheld computers. Palmedic is being sold for US$200 with all plug-in modules currently available are free of charge. A bundle containing Palmedic and the note writing utility Transcriptionist is being offered for US$300 (a savings of US$150). For more info e-mail jrad@jrad.seagull.net.
-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)