1/21/2000 Smart Dog Software announces the BackTalk Communications System for NewtonOS 2.1


Bring your Newton into the next century
with Smart Dog BackTalk

Too fast out of the gate

Apple Computer created the MP2000 and MP2100 with impressive and forward-looking capabilities, including IrDA-compatible infrared hardware (www.irda.org).

Unfortunately, higher-level IrDA standards, intended to give infrared appliances a common protocol for information exchange, did not exist at the time the Newton was produced, and so were not included in the Newton ROMs.

Now the IrDA standards are proliferating, and have been implemented on the Palm™ III, V, and VII machines, various WinCE machines, and even specialized appliances like the HP CapShare handheld scanner - and more are coming every day.

It is tragically ironic that the Newton, the earliest consumer PDA platform to support the low-level IrDA standards, is crippled by nothing more than its own early introduction, and cannot communicate with modern infrared devices.

Coming up-to-date

Smart Dog BackTalk brings your MP2000, MP2100, or eMate into the modern era of infrared communications. By supplementing the Newton's communications capabilities with modern protocols, the Newton is able to exchange data with today's devices.

And tomorrow's, as well. A flexible translation architecture makes support of new data formats as easy as creating a simple translation library and dropping it into the Newton's system as an independent component; any Newton developer will be able to write new translators to further extend the Newton's communication capabilities.

A licensed standard

Smart Dog Software is pleased to be working with Extended Systems/Counterpoint to provide the standard and industry-accepted IrDA IrOBEX protocol for the Newton platform.

Extended Systems/Counterpoint has licensed its IrOBEX stack for a number of other platforms, including the Palm series of digital organizers and the HP CapShare 920 hand-held scanner. With Extended Systems/Counterpoint and Smart Dog Software, your communications are guaranteed to be industry-standard.

The Newton lives on

The future parades on relentlessly; make sure your Newton is as prepared for it as you are, with:

For more information

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This page was last modified on April 24, 2001.