| BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : NOVEMBER 15, 1999 ISSUE | ||||||||
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| TECH BUYING GUIDE -- HANDHELDS
How to Bring Your Menagerie of Gadgets to Heel You've finally taken the plunge and started keeping track of your calendar and address book on the office computer. You no longer use Post-It notes, and you don't rely on business cards collected in a drawer. But what about all the rest of your gadgets? You'll want up-to-date info on your home computer, your laptop, your Palm handheld, and even your cell phone. And by the way, when you jot down a new phone number in the Palm, you need the change transferred to all those other contact lists. Doable? Yes. Simple? Not yet, but it's getting there. New software and an assortment of Web services are making it easier for the nomad worker to keep the data on a growing arsenal of gadgets working in near-perfect harmony. When you buy a new handheld, whether it's a Palm, a pager, or a smart phone, you generally get basic software for coordinating data with your PC. But these packages are no great shakes. Palm software works only with its own PC desktop program or Microsoft Outlook. Windows CE devices, such as Compaq's Aero, connect only with Outlook. An exception is the Xircom REX organizer or its phone accessory cousin, the Motorola StarTAC Clip-on Organizer. Starfish TrueSync, which comes with the REX, allows you to update a number of different desktop contact managers such as Symantec Act! It also works with Palms, Windows CE handhelds, and some Motorola pagers and GSM phones. AUTOMATIC BACKUP. The latest advance in bringing conformity to the growing variety of digital devices is a new kind of Web service, often free, that stores your information on a server. Using the service, you can then link everything from desktop and portable PCs to handhelds and phones. And the Web provides another bonus: automatic backup of your vital info. Starfish provides TrueSync on the Web through Yahoo! Inc. Puma Technology has announced a Web version that supports handhelds, PCs, and smart phones. A startup called FusionOne offers a test version of its service. Currently, FusionOne can handle only Windows PCs running Outlook and Palm devices, but it plans to support other devices. The basic service is free. But an ad-free version is $29.95. These services are still in their infancy. But by this time next year, it should be easy to keep all your key dates and addresses at your fingertips no matter where you are. By Stephen H. Wildstrom _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP |
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RELATED ITEMS The Palm Is Mightier... TABLE: A Show of Handhelds Product Profile: 3Com Palm V PHOTO: Palm V How to Bring Your Menagerie of Gadgets to Heel TABLE: Software to Sync Up with Your PC The Internet Is Here to Stay, but the Computer? INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online | |||
