News

Another hand-held maker - NEC - signs up Picsel UI

Is Picsel really shaping up as an alternative to the Windows user interface on pocket devices? So far, we've seen the OQO, the Sony PEG-NZ90, and now NEC has bought Picsel's software for its Sigmarion portable, which Docomo is launching in Japan.

The machine is a small clamshell, looking exactly like the original Windows CE machines - in the style of a notebook PC, but a lot smaller. It's aimed squarely at the market which Psion used to rule with the model 3a and the model 5 pocket computers before it closed down operations, but includes wireless connectivity (to Japanese standards, of course).

The Picsel UI is in many ways, far more powerful than Pocket Windows; it not only includes native viewers (and editors) for most Office documents, but can also allow simultaneous editing of Adobe Acrobat (both read and write) portable document format files, and Word - in two separate resizeable windows. And at the same time, it can do daft things like play Doom in another window ...

More at Picsel's technology pages. Also see earlier NewsWireless.Net articles.

Picsel recently announced that Sun's Masood Jabbar, who was executive vice president for global sales operations for had joined the Picsel board. Jabbar was described as "working in an advisory capacity for Scott McNealy, chairman, president and chief executive officer, at Sun Microsystems."

"Picsel Technologies is developing advanced software for the wireless industry and changing the way people communicate with their consumer electronic devices," said Jabbar. "I look forward to working with Picsel's management team and Board, offering my experience to support Picsel's global operations."