The Eden Group Ltd, the company that developed Amstrad Plc’s PDA600 personal digital assistant says that it has signed up two major international manufacturers for pocket computer-communicator designs. David Crisp, managing director of the Rainow, Cheshire-based developer says that both machines should begin to ship next year, with the first being announced in Comdex/Fall in October. He declined to name names, but said that both products would be A5 or smaller – with the emphasis on the PDA side. Crisp says that the company has also been commissioned by Amstrad to do a second-generation personal digital assistant, which will also be launched next year. If that is not enough Crisp says that the company’s relationship with a major telecommunications carrier has matured nicely and he hopes to sign a deal shortly for production of the ‘Pentel’ phone described in May (CI No. 2160). This is a feature-phone without keys which combines Eden’s pen-driven organiser features – with a hand set, auto-dialler and facsimile modem. If negotiations go smoothly , the Pentel should also hit the streets in 1994. Meanwhile Eden’s Amsoft subsidiary, also based in Rainow, is to launch a series of software products for the Amstrad PDA600. This month the company will begin marketing a Windows-based analogue interface to the PDA software which enables users to duplicate the pocket environment on their personal computers. In the UK it is being sold direct, elsewhere Amstrad distributors are helping out, though Amsoft is actively seeking distributors of its own. The same holds true for a number of card-based applications due later this year which vary from games to a Flash-EPROM back-up and fax card. Also being delivered this month is an MS-DOS-based developer’s kit that will enable applications to be written on a personal computer before compilation on a PCMCIA card. Particularly welcome is Crisp’s assertion that applications written for one Eden-based product should be easily implemented to the other machines this bodes well for software availability on the forthcoming mystery machines.
