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View Full Version : Pumatech Buys Starfish Software


Ed Hansberry
04-02-2003, 02:30 PM
http://www.pmn.co.uk/20030331pumatech.shtml

Starfish Software is the company that makes products like TrueSync that used to be available from Yahoo to sync your "My Yahoo" content with Outlook and other PIM applications.

"Pumatech, provider of mobile synchronisation technology, has agreed to acquire rival Starfish Software, a Motorola subsidary, for an undisclosed amount. Motorola bought Starfish in 1998, also as part of an undisclosed deal, four years after it was founded by Phillipe Kahn. Starfish is one of the founding members of the SyncML initiative, now part of OMA, which defines an open, XML-based standard for sharing PIM data across virtually any network and any device. Pumatech supports SyncML in its products for mobile enterprise synchronisation and the sync technology it provides to partners for inclusion in their own services."

phanprod
04-02-2003, 05:07 PM
Starfish also wrote Sidekick, which was a neat little pim. I loved Sidekick 99 - it was a simple calendar / contacts / notes program, which had TrueSync built in with support for the early RIM devices - not that I had one. A great alternative to Outlook when you didn't need all the bells and whistles. I'm not positive, but I think Sidekick became the Palm desktop, and I can't get it to run without my Palm anymore... not that it matters with the PPC and all. The sad part of it all it that I have a Motorolla T720 cell phone, which boasts TrueSync compatability, but Sidekick 99 isn't compatable with the new TrueSync... and there's no simple pim for my phone.

Foolish me for buying something before I heard about bluetooth! :cry:

jmarkevich
04-02-2003, 05:22 PM
No, Sidekick and Palm desktop were different. They were similar in look and feel... sidekick 1.0 was stunningly useful. If it didn't have Y2K problems I would still recommend it today!!!

Sidekick 95 was available for free download for quite a while... does anyone know if it is possible to hook it up to ActiveStink?

GregWard
04-02-2003, 11:21 PM
Didn't they do a version for the Rex as well? I used to have it working with an older clamshell Jornada (620 - I think). You could keep the Rex in the Jornada's PC Card slot and pop it out when you didn't want to cart around the extra weight. Cool!

I still think my ideal device would be something the size of a Rex (running PPC - of course!!!!) but with some "dumb" outer devices. By which I mean the processor/memory/data is all on the PC Card (CF card even better!). Then you plug the card into which ever outer device suited you - big screen, real keyboard when (for example) you went to a conference, Smartphone when you were out drinking with your mates etc etc.

What do you think? If we got the whole of Thoughts interested we could go to HTC and get them to build it for us!!!!

Heh - we could even call it the Jason!!!! :D

Programmer
04-03-2003, 01:27 AM
I heard it reported that Motorola bought Starfish for $100 million. I remember thinking it was an awful lot for syncing software.

Ed Hansberry
04-03-2003, 01:52 AM
I heard it reported that Motorola bought Starfish for $100 million. I remember thinking it was an awful lot for syncing software.
Trust me, over the past few years, people have spent more than that on sinking IT departments to. :lol: