NEW YORK-Developers of devices and applications for wireless communications strutted their stuff, offering new, nearly new and soon-to-debut products and services at this year’s MobileFocus.
Giving more gumption to handheld computers is the design of at least five of the companies at this bite-sized trade show, held as an independent adjunct to PC Expo.
DeLorme, based in Yarmouth, Maine, unveiled Solus Pro 2.0, its latest generation of mapping software for Palm computers using operating system versions 2.0 and higher. Among other things, Solus Pro 2.0 allows users to search for place names, roads, cities and points of interest.
Vindigo, a developer of personal navigation applications for Palm-compatible handheld devices, has expanded its so-called “lifestyle information” retrieval service beyond its New York City base to include Chicago, Boston, San Francisco and Washington, D.C. The service, which is free to end users, is sponsored by advertisers whose databases Vindigo taps into.
In anticipation of what might seem the inevitable, Symantec Corp., Cupertino, Calif., has developed what it says is the first anti-virus technology for the Palm OS platform.
“Although there are currently no known computer virus, worm or Trojan horse threats targeting handheld devices, the Palm OS is susceptible to malicious code like other mainstream computing platforms since it runs a wide variety of programs,” the company said.
Novatel Wireless Inc., San Diego, announced the availability of two new wireless modems. The Minstrel 540 Wireless Palmtop Modem is designed to give users of the Hewlett-Packard HP Jornada 540 series Pocket PC secure access to e-mail, corporate local area networks and the Internet. The Minstrel S Wireless Springboard Modem allows Handspring Visor users similar kinds of access and communications over the Cellular Digital Packet Data Network.
Also with the Handspring Visor in mind, Glenayre Technologies Inc., Charlotte, N.C., said it has opened a new Web site providing tools for developers of applications that work with its @ctiveLink two-way wireless messaging module and enable connectivity to ReFLEX networks. @ctiveLink snaps into the Springboard slot in the Handspring Visor, giving its users access to Internet-based messaging and information applications.
Research in Motion Inc., based in Waterloo, Ontario, is taking a leap across the Atlantic Ocean to the United Kingdom. RIM said BT Cellnet would begin corporate customer trials later this year of RIM’s BlackBerry wireless e-mail system on the carrier’s new General Packet Radio Services network.
Nokia Corp. said it would begin shipping in July its Nokia 8890, a dual-band Global System for Mobile communications 900 MHz phone designed for world travelers. Among other features, this first world phone from the Finnish manufacturer supports all three wireless voice codes and permits voice-activated dialing.
Sweden’s L.M. Ericsson plans to begin selling this quarter two versions of its world phone. The R380 World is a dual-band GSM 900 MHz handset with personal digital assistant and Wireless Application Protocol functionality. The T28 World, also a dual-band GSM phone, permits voice-activated dialing.
