AmbiCom (http://www.ambicom.com) has announced a new Windows CE 2.0 savvy "AMB8010 Power Saver Ethernet PC Card" (MSRP US$129) that offers low-power consumption (only 39 milliamps) and 10-Mbps maximum transfer rates in a Type II standard form factor. The card also comes with drivers for Windows 95/98/NT 4.0.
David Pogue has an excellent multi-page PalmPilot article in MacWorld (http://www.macworld.com) published for Aug98. The article is entitled "Mac's Best Friend: New Software Makes The PalmPilot Your Mac's Ideal Companion."
Citrix Systems has announced an Independent Computing Architecture (ICA) Client for Windows CE devices from HP, Philips, and Sharp. In related news, Cruise Technologies (http://www.cruisetech.com) also has ICA capabilities in their CruisePad (client) and CruiseConnect (server) products that can connect wirelessly using Proxim's Wireless Access Point technology.
Philips is now shipping their Nino 300 family of "personal companion" devices that are palm-size Windows CE savvy. Philips is working closely with SanDisk to offer CompactFlash memory cards with the Nino and has licensed the Tegic Communications text input engine known as "T9" for bundling on Nino devices.
Sybase (http://www.sybase.com), which has already announced a mobile Windows CE client of their Adapter Server Anywhere software, has also announced plans for a 3Com PalmPilot based client that will be less than 50K in size. A beta should be out by Fall 1998.
HP and Sharp have proposed a new 16-Mpbs infrared standard to the Infrared Data Association (IrDA). A working group has reportedly been formed and a "standard" could be approved by the end of 1998, with initial products on the market by mid-1999. The new standard is being tentatively called "Very Fast Infrared (VFIR)." [PC Week, 08Jun98]
AvantGo Software (http://www.avantgo.com) has teamed up with Weather24 (http://www.weather24.com) to offer PalmPilot users with a "five-day weather forecast" channel.
DynaFirm (http://www.dynafirm.com) has a new business card scanner called the "CardJet" that fits onto the back of a PalmPilot device. The unit will convert business cards inserted into the unit into text for import into the PalmPilot's contact database. CardJet will retail for US$299 and uses two AA batteries for approximately 70 hours of usage. [Information Week, 15Jun98, page 209]
EBB-mobile data systems (http://www.ebb-ubb.com/ebb) has finished and posted a demo version of VoiceNotes 1.0 -- their digital dictating machine for the Newton. This one is a full-featured version but only saves 5 recordings at a maximum length of 1 minute per recording.
SilverWARE (http://www.silverware.com) has announced the release of MoreInfo 5.04 for the Newton. This is a free upgrade for MoreInfo 5 users. A new feature in this version is the ability to link to PelicanWare's Notion 2.0 lists (http://www.pelicanware.com). SilverWARE has also released a 30-day demo of a new utility called "UnlimitedFolders."
Shana (http://www.shana.com) announced to their customers of Informed Filler for the Newton back on 14Apr98 that they were terminating their development of future versions of Informed Filler for the Newton. The are, however, continuing to look at Windows CE and PalmPilot platforms for opportunities.
-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)