Frisk your nearest übergeek and you'll doubtless find them armed with a beeper, a cell phone, and perhaps a PalmPilot. The Rex PC Companion may become the latest addition to this arsenal. Combining truly innovative hardware with solid software, this electronic organizer gives the Pilot some real competition.
Weighing in at just 1.4 ounces, the Rex is about the size of a stack of four or five credit cards - small enough to let you forget it's there and light enough to make your Pilot suddenly feel burdensome.
The Rex holds your contacts, dates, memos, and to-dos and displays them on a 30-character, 9-line LCD screen. But unlike the Pilot, the Rex does not allow you to input data on the card itself - you'll have to do that on your PC. This is a serious shortcoming, and depending on how you like to work, it may single-handedly turn you off.
The package consists of Starfish Software's Win95-only PIM. You can import data from Sidekick, Microsoft Outlook and Schedule+, Act!, and Lotus Organizer to the software and then to the Rex.
Synchronization is hassle-free, but be forewarned: it may wipe out the one form of data that you can actually enter - to-do lists. If you check off an item on the Rex and then sync without also marking it on the software end, you'll find that not only doesn't the check transfer to your PC, it's actually unchecked on the Rex.
Getting around the Rex itself is simple - in fact, five buttons are all you need. In the absence of a touchscreen, this may seem clunky, but it works surprisingly well. One minor annoyance is that while tabbing through names and dates, you're occasionally subjected to the much-despised hourglass icon as the Rex catches up. Still, the Rex's size puts it in a class by itself. And if you don't mind using your PC for data entry, this gizmo should top your wish list.
##### Rex PC Companion: US$129.95 to $179.95. Franklin Electronic Publishers: (888) REX 6400.
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