Date: Thu, 10 Sep 1998 13:46:43 -0500 (CDT)
From: Paul Iadonisi <iadonisi@colltech.com>
To: lwn@eklektix.com
Subject: REX PC Companion to be supported on Linux!

  I just submitted this on Slashdot, so I figured
I'd send it to LWN as well.
  For those of you not familiar with the Rex
Companion, it is a PC Card with an LCD display
which plugs into a laptop PC Card slot (or
specialized docking station for a desktop).  It's
a PDA.  The original REX released last year had
no input other than your laptop PC Card slot, but
the new REX PRO now has input and double the old
memory of 256k, bringing up to 512k.  The
original product was a great proof-of-concept
product, but the new REX PRO looks like a
must-have gadget.  The 512k limit sounds small,
but from what I've heard their compression
technology is superb.  The original REX now goes
for $99.00 (down from $130.00), while the new
REX PRO goes for around $230.00.
  The best news is what Philippe Kahn, CEO and
Chairman sent out to the rex mailing list a little
over a week ago.  All I can say is kudos to Linux
users who have been giving feedback to Starfish
Software.  The message could be found at
http://www.linkmagnet.com/rex/rextalk.html at the
bottom of the page, but here it is in it's
entirety in case it goes away soon:

Philippe Kahn <philippe at starfish dot com> -- 09/01/98 -- 01:03:42

       Hello all,
 
       This is Philippe from Starfish again.
 
       We have greatly appreciated the enthusiasm
       which the Linux community has demonstrated
       for REX. Last month, I told you that we
       wanted to find a smart way to help the
       Linux community and were working to
       deliver what it takes to create a TrueSync
       synchronization component for Linux.  Well
       I am happy to say that we are ready to
       begin rolling this out.
 
       We have developed the software and
       documentation which allows users to connect
       to and write synchronization to the REX
       (and upcoming versions of REX) on Linux
       systems -- the REX (and upcoming versions
       of REX) on Linux systems -- the TrueSync
       Connectivity Pack for Linux.  We would like
       to begin privately testing this with a
       small group of developers from this forum
       this week.  This exclusive Preview is
       intended to enable us to learn more about
       your development needs and polish up the
       documentation before releasing this to the
       community on whole.  We will then roll out
       a public Beta next Tuesday, September 8th.
       After receiving further feedback, we expect
       to release a public "Version 1.0" release
       on September 21st.
 
       In addition to the release of the TrueSync
       Connectivity Pack for Linux, we are
       creating a dedicated space for developers
       such as yourself on our website which will
       unveil next week along with some other
       exciting announcements about REX.
 
       If you are interested in previewing our
       TrueSync Connectivity Pack for Linux,
       please send your name and a contact phone
       number to developer@starfish.com and we
       will send you instructions on how to
       download the Preview software and
       documentation.
 
       Thanks for your ongoing support of REX!
 
           -Philippe-

You can find Starfish software at
http://www.starfish.com and Franklin electronics
at http://www.franklin.com


-Paul Iadonisi / Consultant
 Collective Technologies
 Team Yankee, Local Linux Lobbyist
 Ever see a penguin fly? -- Try Linux.