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Suddenly, Bluetooth becomes a Palm essential: Colligo launches meeting software

The drive to acquire Bluetooth has been invisible to many opinion formers; but the launch of "collaboration software" by Vancouver-based Colligo could spur Palm users into making it a "must have" in the check-list.

You won't want to be the one left out - Colligo Networks has announced a third Bluetooth based program, following BlueBoard and Bluechat: Colligo Meeting, a new group calendaring and scheduling solution for Bluetooth enabled Palm Powered handhelds.

The result is that everybody in range (within a 10 m circle) in a meeting room should be able to communicate and exchange information using their Palm Powered handhelds. That is, if they all have a Bluetooth version of the Palm.

That, sadly, leaves out the new Handspring Treo, which inexplicably, doesn't. At least, the phone-enabled version, the model 180, doesn't; the smaller model 90, without the phone, has a secure digital socket in it, into which you could plug a Toshiba SD card, giving it Bluetooth capabilities.

BlueBoard and BlueChat were licensed by Palm, Inc. and are bundled with the Palm (Toshiba) Bluetooth Card. Meeting adds calendaring: "It allows users to wirelessly connect their Palm OS Date Books, view each attendee's schedule, secure a meeting time and accept or decline invitations," claims Colligo in its press release.

The company persuaded Michael Wall, analyst with Frost & Sullivan's ICT group, to make the following endorsement:

“The launch of Colligo Meeting along with Colligo's previous Bluetooth applications marks an exciting breakthrough for mobile professionals everywhere. In leveraging the power and simplicity of Bluetooth, Colligo delivers an innovative new capability that brings to market what has been missing from wireless services until now - useful, easy-to-use applications that allow users to exchange information when other means of connectivity are difficult if not impossible.â€

Well, it's a neat application, but useless until everybody has an m125, m130, m500, m505, m515, i705 version of the Palm hand-held. But it could be - as Colligo claims - that these applications are a catalyst for Bluetooth wireless adoption.

"Increasingly, workers are bringing portable devices into their own workplace or to offsite locations with a need to do more than offline activities. Whether it's a group of business consultants or sales people working offsite or a group of coworkers at a coffee shop, Colligo's applications give mobile professionals the freedom to wirelessly work together away from their desks without requiring access to wide area wireless networks," says the announcement.

And the company president, Barry Jinks, adds: “Scheduling meetings is a dynamic process that depends on input from multiple participants."

He'll go far, don't you think?

“With serverless applications like Colligo Meeting, devices will begin to meet the needs of users, instead of the user having to adapt to the wireless infrastructure available.â€

Colligo Meeting is available for purchase for $19.95 from www.colligo.com and has been, since June 25, 2002. Users will also be able to download a free, limited version of Colligo Meeting for evaluation for 30 days. The Palm Bluetooth Card with BlueBoard and BlueChat are available for $129 USD from The Palm Store.