Motorola Inc yesterday duly introduced its Envoy personal communicator, the key selling point for which is that it enables users to send and receive information over the Ardis wireless network joint venture with IBM Corp. But in common with other communicators, which are either stuffed with capability or affordable, but seldom both, it is expected to sell for about $1,500 when it ships this summer. As well as using Ardis and linking to computers and telephones, Envoys can also communicate with each other via an infra-red transceiver, and includes software for taking notes and keeping track of meetings and expenses. The Envoy is operated by tapping on-screen boxes or an on-screen keyboard with a finger or electronic pen. It offers an electronic ink capability but does not recognise handwriting. Envoy is built around Motorola’s Dragon I/68349 microprocessor and includes 1Mb of RAM, 4Mb of software in ROM, the 38.4Kbps point-to-point infra-red transceiver, two Type II PCMCIA slots, a Magic Bus high-speed serial port and a microphone and speaker. It runs the Magic Cap graphical environment from General Magic Inc, and the operating system includes a diary, phone dialler, address manager, notebook, calculator, library and games, and integrated electronic mail and communications management. Bundled applications include America Online and Online Airline Guide services, initially accessible only via a land-line connection; AT&T Co’s PersonaLink electronic mail client, accessible both wirelessly and via dial-up; RadioMail wireless text-only messaging; Intuit Inc’s Pocket Quicken SmartWallet; and PenWare Inc’s PenCell spreadsheet. The Envoy integrates most of its electronics onto two chips; it weighs 1.7 lbs, and is 7.5 wide, 5.7 high, 1.2 thick, and has a 3 by 4.5 screen. Sony Corp’s electronic publishing unit demonstrated the Official Airline Guide FlightLine and Spell Finder for Magic Cap, and Oracle Corp said it would bring Oracle Media Server access to Magic Cap and to Envoy.
