AGENDA VR3 PORTABLE PC Agenda Computing Inc, a California-based company has launched a full function PDA, codenamed VR3, running on embedded Linux. The Developer Edition, priced at $249, measures 4.5"x3.0"x0.8" and weighs 4 oz. It comes equipped with a 66MHz 32 Bit NEC VR4181 MIPS processor, 8 MB of RAM and 16 MB of flash storage. It has a 240x160 pixel monochrome LCD touch screen display with 16-level gray scale and a viewable area of 2" x 2¼". The display also features back lit for viewing in low light conditions and has a digital contrast control. The user interface is highly enhanced by the presence of touch sensitive quick launch hard icons, push buttons for different actions, on-screen keyboard and handwriting recognition input as well as provision for an external keyboard. It also has an external headset with microphone and a buzzer. As far as the connectivity is concerned the device is enabled through an IrDA port for long-range Infra Red transfers, an RS-232 port, a 1.6 MHz clocked serial port for hooking up external keyboard, mass storage, wireless, etc. and a consumer IR port. If required, a 56 Kbps external modem can also be plugged. On the software side, the features are just as good. It boots on a Linux-based Linux VR operating system and provides a robust and flexible solution for personal information management. It allows sending and receiving of mails as well as faxes using the optional modem and a phone line. It facilitates wireless transfer of messages, memos and applications to other infrared-enabled PDAs as well as any OBEX-compliant device. While the electronic date book feature helps in scheduling, the to-do-list feature helps in managing, prioritizing and tracking completion of tasks. Users can maintain a contact list or take down notes or even find out the time across various time zones. Further, to make it complete, there is this bundled Quicksync software, which compares information stored on the PDA to desktop PC files, thus enabling the users remain updated. The Agenda VR3 software also allows defining multiple dialup connections and TCP/IP configurations. In fact, the network connection profiles can have all the normal settings which one generally has on his desktop PC including multiple user accounts and passwords, dynamic DNS and local IP numbers, header compression settings and parameters for data flow control. One can also create specific dialup Internet connections and set the modem initialization strings, modem speeds and define automated login scripts. Finally, for lighter moments one could always play some of the games on this handheld.