Forum Archive Index - September 2000

["David Reid" <aspex@ix.net.nz>]

Hope you are wrong. I have a bucket full of Tadpole. See below:

M-business leader's Endeavors Technology business unit releases new, real-world web software for WAP phones and web-enabled devices

Cambridge and Carlsbad (CA), June 20, 2000 - "It's a new and better way for the growing population of WAP-enabled phone users and web-enabled devices to do business on the move," says Bernard Hulme, group chief executive of mobile business computing specialist, Tadpole Technology plc.

He adds: "MagiWAP^TM software transforms the mobile phone into a smart remote controller that can access, read, move, fax, or print documents stored on a desktop, laptop, or palmtop, whatever their location, without first downloading data or documents to the device."

Hulme's comments followed the announcement that Endeavors Technology, Inc., Tadpole's recently-acquired web technology software business unit, had today launched the second release of its innovative open-source Magi^TM tool suite. Called MagiWAP^TM, it joins Endeavors' authoring plugin, MagiDAV^TM.

The latest software extends Magi architecture to WAP-enabled mobile phones. For the first time, they can be used as a remote control device to fax a business letter from a distant home PC to a customer, or to print a business plan located on a trusted co-worker's PC to any networked printer. MagiWAP also allows mobile phone users to read and check the contents of a quotation on their office PCs, to then email it to a customer, or to move a proposal from a home PC to a trusted co-worker's PC in their office - all accomplished via any number of commercially-available WAP phones, without having to sign on to an intermediate service, and without the document having to be downloaded to or from the phone.

"MagiWAP blazes a trail towards the next generation of mobile Web applications," says Rohit Khare, CEO of KnowNow, Inc. and 4K Associate.

Tom Arkwright of Sun Microsystems, Inc. adds: "MagiWAP fulfills the Java promise by unifying a vast world of cooperating devices where documents and data are manipulated anywhere, anytime, on any device."

Forrester predicts there will be 41 million mobile Internet users in the UK alone by 2005. More than two-thirds will have multiple Internet-enabled devices - handhelds, desktop computers, Internet TVs, and portable computers, for example. Endeavors' MagiDAV technology gives the web-enabled population controlled, two-way Internet access to documents on all disparate Internet devices, as well as to documents on devices of trusted workgroups.

MagiWAP takes MagiDAV a stage further and gives real-time, up-to-date access to all business data, or that of trusted colleagues, from a WAP phone (or from Magi-enabled computers or laptops), wherever it's located -- and the technology to move it to the right hands - whether beside your computer, away from your desk, or on the other side of the world where your documents are located.

Instead of just using WAP phones to read public broadcast information, such as stock prices, weather, business news, and sports scores, MagiWAP allows phone users to securely obtain "private broadcast information" - business plans, price lists, research documents, quotations - as well as those of colleagues within a trusted workgroup. It allows the mobile user to read, move, email, fax, or print these documents, all from a WAP phone.

The latest Magi release is now available on-line, and can be downloaded freely from website http://magi.endeavors.org/

About Magi
Magiä is a global, open source initiative for developers building and deploying Internet-scale, business-to-business applications and is based on such web standards as the Apache Web Server, Web Distributed Authoring and Versioning protocol (WebDav), XML, JAVA and HTTP. With Microsoft Office 2000ä being WebDAV-enabled, a practical example of MagiDAV's power is its ability to provide any Microsoft Office 2000 user with the ability to read, write and publish directly to or from a variety of locations (home, office, or on the move), and now also from a mobile phone.

Endeavors' MagiDAV architecture addresses the mounting problem of managing and processing uncoordinated, unsynchronised information scattered randomly on web-enabled devices. It allows an individual to get at and work on any information held within that individual's desktop computer, laptop computer, or palmtop handheld device from any online remote wireless web-enabled device, anywhere. Once that information has been worked upon, the individual can also share it, simply, directly and dynamically, with defined groups of colleagues or collaborators, identified as "buddies", without needing intermediate servers or services requiring time consuming and complex interactions.

About Endeavors Technology
Endeavors Technology, Inc., acquired by Tadpole in March 2000, was founded in 1998 out of research undertaken at the University of California, Irvine, into the use of the World Wide Web to support wide area wireless e-processes and e-services across mobile workforces and multiple organisations. Endeavors' founders and technical advisory board have an unrivalled pedigree in developing Internet infrastructure having co-authored many of the Web's most commonly used protocols and software.

About Tadpole
Tadpole Technology plc (www.tadpole.com) is a listed company on the London Stock Exchange (EPIC-TAD) with plants and offices in Cambridge, Edinburgh, Bristol (UK), and Irvine and Carlsbad (California). Its Tadpole-RDI hardware business unit is the global leader in portable UNIX workstations and servers and innovator of the world's first Java-enabled rugged pen computer. Its Tadpole-Cartesia software business unit is an emerging leader in enterprise-class mobile information systems for the world's utilities, telecommunications and public service industries that open new vistas for better management and productivity of field workers, lead to improved customer service and reduced operational costs, and enable user industries to fully capitalise their investments in corporate GIS and CAD data. David Reid