.KEYWORD additions
.FLYINGHEAD IN THE NEWS
.TITLE Partners provide software and support for Palm i705
.OTHER
.SUMMARY Whenever Palm releases a new product, partners and third-party developers step up and make announcements of their own to tell the world about their related software and services. Contributing Editor Steve Niles has a survey of some of the important announcements that followed on the heals of the Palm i705 release.
.AUTHOR Steve Niles
Whenever Palm releases a new product, partners and third-party developers step up and make announcements of their own to tell the world about their related software and services. The release of the Palm i705 was no different, and a number of companies made announcements related to the device’s signature wireless capabilities. What follows is a sampling of the Palm i705 related news that came out in the days following its release.
.H1 Documents To Go
DataViz, Inc. (at http://www.dataviz.com) announced that Documents To Go Professional Edition is included with the new Palm i705 wireless handheld. Documents To Go gets a lot of press, especially here in the pages of PalmPower, and rightfully so. Documents To Go Professional Edition is a powerful combo pack of software designed to allow you to create, view, and edit Word and Excel files as well as review PowerPoint files.
The software package is a fine office solution, but its features are also popular with students and other general handheld consumers. I, for one, use spreadsheets far more in my personal record keeping than I do on the job. Being able to carry my Excel spreadsheets on my handheld is great even when I’m grocery shopping, for example.
The Palm i705 is actually the fourth Palm handheld to include Documents To Go. Palm, Inc. and DataViz first worked together in March of 2001 with the inclusion of Documents To Go on the Palm m500 and m505 handhelds. The Palm m125, also including Documents To Go, was released in November of 2001. Let’s face it, almost everyone uses Microsoft Office applications, so Palm’s decision to include a Palm-sized office suite is no big stretch of the imagination. It just makes sense to make it easier for people to be able to extend those applications to their handheld.
If you do purchase a Palm i705 with the Documents To Go bundle, you can contact DataViz within 30 days of purchase to get more information about special offers for Documents To Go as well as information on the Add-On Kit, which includes DataViz Mail and PDF To Go. These applications are designed to allow you to synchronize email and attachments along with PDF files to the handheld.
.H1 GoAmerica
Speaking of email, GoAmerica, Inc. (at http://www.goamerica.net) announced plans to support the Palm i705 the day after the handheld’s release. The Palm i705 already has a number of cool wireless features, such as always-on "push" secure end-to-end email for corporate email accounts; personal email with support for up to six Internet email accounts; and Web browsing via Google search or URL entry.
GoAmerica’s Mobile Office solution is designed to complement the Palm i705’s always-on push secure end-to-end email functionality by providing you with the ability to access proprietary corporate data and applications on the device. GoAmerica’s Mobile Office adds to the tools native to the Palm i705 handheld, with more advanced features such as Document Manager, which provides access to a private library of frequently used documents and files for quick delivery via fax and email.
Through Mobile Office, you can access proprietary data in corporate applications including customer relationship management, enterprise resource planning, and sales force automation. Also, you can use Mobile Office to open and read email attachments as well as make use of a paging service.
.H1 Copytalk
Copytalk (at http://www.copytalk.com) announced that it will provide support for the push capabilities of Palm.Net wireless service. Copytalk allows you to send emails via dictation over the phone. Copytalk then sends the information as an email as though it came from your desktop. With Copytalk, you can also create handheld organizer entries via phone dictation, and the service adds the information to the handheld computer’s applications as though it had been entered by hand.
By supporting the push capabilities of the Palm.Net wireless service, Copytalk will allow email and other information dictated to Copytalk to be sent automatically to the Palm i705. This could come in really handy if you don’t have the time to write out an email reply by hand. Instead, you can just call and dictate the email, and Copytalk will then push it to the Palm i705 to be confirmed and sent.
To use the service you first have to become a Copytalk subscriber. Then you download and install the free Copytalk software and indicate that you have a Palm i705 wireless handheld. To dictate a message, you call Copytalk’s toll free number and dictate naturally, as if you were leaving a message on an answering machine. A feature called Copytalk Nicknames will act as an on-line address book, so you can direct the email to be sent by saying the recipient’s name before you begin dictating the message. You can also use Copytalk to dictate memos, contacts, appointments, to-dos, and expenses.
Copytalk then transcribes the dictation and notifies the Palm i705 via the Palm.Net wireless service. The Palm i705 contacts Copytalk and retrieves the information. If the Palm i705 is turned off or is out of range of the wireless network, the notification is automatically queued and resent.
The Copytalk client for the Palm i705 is currently in limited release, with public availability expected by late February. Copytalk subscriptions start at $9.95 per month, but Palm customers get special offers. More information on that is available at the Copytalk Web site.
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.H1 More to come
There’s sure to be more announcements at PalmSource and we’ll be here to keep you up to date. Be sure to check the pages of PalmPower daily to get the latest news on your favorite handhelds.
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.H1 Product availability and resources
For more information on DataViz, Inc., visit http://www.dataviz.com.
For more information on GoAmerica, Inc., visit http://www.goamerica.net.
For more information on Copytalk, visit http://www.copytalk.com.
For more information on Palm handhelds, visit http://www.palm.com.
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