REX is a PC Card PDA that grew out of a partnership between Starfish Software (makers of Sidekick, the personal information management software), Franklin Electronics (makers of hand-held electronic dictionaries and encyclopedias and Rolodex's parent company), and Japanese watchmakers Citizen Watch. This amazingly tiny computer is the brainchild of Philippe Kahn, the colorful and notorious founder of Borland International and creator of Turbo Pascal and Sidekick. In 1995, Kahn stepped out of the high-tech limelight and quietly began work on software to power a new breed of cheap handheld and wearable devices he hopes will eventually overtake the PC.

While he may have plans to surpass the personal computer in the future, Kahn's first offering is completely reliant on it. Weighing in at only 1.4 ounces and measuring 3-3/8" x 2-1/8" x 1/4", REX is a credit-card size read-only pocket organizer. It's a Type II PCMCIA card that can be used in the PC card slot of a laptop or with a desktop computer via an optional ($40) docking station. It has a very clear and readable 2 1/4" x 1 1/2" LED screen with a 5-button navigation bar on the right-hand side. Unlike other PDAs, you don't touch the screen, you use the button keypad to move around and make selections. Power is provided by two lithium watch batteries.

Use of REX is completely intuitive. I figured out everything within seconds of pulling it out of the box. The Home menu is divided into a daily/weekly appointment calendar, address book, to-do list, memos, home/world clock, and preferences. Along the bottom of the screen is a status bar showing local time, battery status, location, etc. The address book can be viewed as either a list with only names and phone numbers listed alphabetically or as individual records. The to-do list can be viewed as a list or as individual to-do items with notes. The Memo area lets you import text documents from your PC. The clock has a customizable menu of cities so that you can find out what time it is in places you might be calling or traveling to. The REX is impressive, and everyone who's played with the one we got here at Street Tech has oohed and aahed over it...until they ask how you enter information into it.

You're on the road, making sales rounds with your nifty new REX, filled with the day's contacts, to-do lists and meeting notes. At your first meeting, the client gives you their new Web address. You scribble it on the back of their business card. You then get a call on your cell phone telling you that your 2 o'clock appointment has been moved to 4 and your 4 o'clock wants to meet you for lunch instead. Your secretary also gives you the names and numbers of two new potential clients. You write all this down on paper. Later, at a meeting, you read the letter you wrote last night and downloaded to REX this morning. Everyone likes it but they offer several improvements. Unable to make changes to the document, you again write these down on paper. By the end of the day, you're sometimes searching the REX for needed information, other times sifting through a growing pile of paper notes.

And that's what makes this first iteration of REX not cut it: no direct data entry. If this baby had Graffiti built into it, you'd really have something. My 10 year old son also had a great idea. The REX comes with a little leather case, like the kind that carry business cards. He looked at it and thought they should make a separate REX keyboard that would be the same size of REX and fit into the other side of the folding leather case. It could have a software keyboard like other PDAs have. You could use a stylus with a pocket clip to tap the new entries out. You wouldn't want to do all of your entries like this, but it could allow you to make needed changes and additions in the field.

Another drawback is that there are no search capabilities in REX. That might not seem like much when you only have several dozen names, memos and calendar days entered, but the basic REX (REX-1) can store up to 750 records and REX-3 can store up to 3,000. "Wait...I forgot...which of the widget manufacturers in my Contacts database sells both plastic and aluminum versions?" Sorry, Willie, you'll have to scroll through every one to find out.

REX works with TrueSync, a reasonably powerful and full-featured personal information manager (PIM) that comes with it. You do all of your scheduling, planning and contact database management on your PC. If you're using a laptop, you simply put the REX into the PC card slot, hit the TrueSync button on the Windows taskbar and your information is transferred to the REX card. On a desktop machine, you need the Docking Station plugged into serial port. To load data, you slide in REX and choose TrueSync from the taskbar. REX is also designed to work with Sidekick, Lotus Organizer 97, ACT! (3.0.6 or later) and MS Schedule+. We didn't try it ourselves, but we heard that others have had problems getting REX to work with other PIMs. Franklin is apparently working on fixes to these problems.

Everything about REX's operation is easy and well-thought-out. It's been dubbed an "unconscious carry," powerful technology you don't even know you're wearing until you need it. It's a shame that in the end though, this is technology that only an early adopter (with money to burn) could love. If Kahn is looking to overtake the PC, he's got a long way to go. REX doesn't even give the PalmPilot a run for its money.

- Gareth Branwyn [10/20/97]