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Pen-and-paper
paradigm
Informal's enotate lets users annotate PC files using stylus-based
handhelds
By Carmen Nobel, eWEEK
November 15, 1999 12:00 AM ET
A Silicon
Valley startup is introducing a product that helps turn a PC into
a sketchpad.
Informal Software Inc. last week introduced what officials said
will be the first of many products that use pen-based computing
to interact with a PC in an effort to make the stylus as integral
an input device as a mouse. The initial product, enotate, is software
that lets a Palm or Windows CE device act as an extension of a PC.
Users
download the enotate software to their handheld devices and then
hook up the handheld to a PC serial port using a cable. Once the
devices are connected, users can annotate or draw on Word files,
e-mail messages, JPEG photo graphs or any Windows-based application.
Marks made with a stylus on the handheld device will show up on
the PC. enotate enables users to change the color and thickness
of the annotations.
The result is basically like drawing the changes onto a piece of
paper, but because the changes remain on-screen, it's possible to
e-mail the marked-up document. Recipients of the document don't
need the enotate software to see the changes.
Officials
at the Santa Clara, Calif., company said the logic behind the software
is that most businesses use pen and paper when working with any
kind of information—from conceiving and creating a document
to annotating and editing it.
The
software will be available for Palm OS next month from the company's
Web site for $49.99. enotate for CE devices is due early next year.
Officials expect enotate and other Informal Software products to
be more useful once Bluetooth products start hitting the market.
Bluetooth is a specification that enables local devices to communicate
wirelessly. Once handheld devices and PCs become Bluetooth-enabled,
users will be able to make presentations with enotate, making notes
on a handheld device and having them appear on a PC screen 20 feet
away.
Informal
Software can be reached at +44(0)1568 708803 or www.informal.com.
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