"PDA - Personal Digital Assistant"
(Personal Digital Assistant) A handheld computer that serves as an organizer for personal information. It generally includes at least a name and address database, to-do list and note taker. PDAs are pen based and use a stylus to tap selections on menus and to enter printed characters. The unit may also include a small on-screen keyboard which is tapped with the pen. Data is synchronized between the PDA and desktop computer via cable or wireless transmission.

Apple's MessagePad, more commonly known as the "Newton," was the first to popularize the concept. The difference between a PDA and palmtop computer is that the PDA uses a pen, the palmtop uses a small keyboard.

Source: http://www.techweb.com/

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ WHAT'S NEW:

IBM Shows Designs For Super-Fast Chips
(02/07/00, 10:02 a.m. ET)
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SAN FRANCISCO -- Researchers at IBM this week plan to show designs of computer chips that they said will be the world's fastest.

IBM researchers will announce at the International Solid-State CircuitsConference (ISSCC) that they have developed a family of high-speed computer circuits that run at speeds of 3.3 to 4.5 GHz, up to five times faster than today's fastest Pentium III chips.

CyberSister's Comment
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It seems like about once a month a major announcement comes out about improvements in the speed of processing power and computer chips. Last month, Transmeta launched the "Crusoe" software controlled high speed chip designed for mobile devices. Intel, another IBM competitor and the world's largest computer chip maker, is even closer than IBM to having a 1-GHz processor commercially available. Its fastest Pentium III runs at 800 MHz. It's great to see competition and innovation in this important field. Fast, power efficient chips are vital in the "Post-PC" world.

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WEB MEASURES:

Web Content Tools
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http://www.infousa.com/
InfoUSA offers free white pages and yellow page directories for web sites.

http://www.screamingmedia.com/
Screaming media offers customized content (mostly news) delivered in whatever format you need delivered right to your web site.

http://www.isyndicate.com/
I*Syndicate calls itself the "content marketplace" - here's where you can get co-branded news and other information in text, audio and video formats.

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BACKGROUNDER:

Online Content Providers
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Setting yourself up as a portal site? Or just trying to generate more traffic? Then it's all about fresh, interesting content. The above content providers are just three of many online content providers (have we just coined a new acronym? OCP!!).

Online Content providers are like the companies that provide the cables/pipelines, only they are in content provision. They often are selling the raw data customized for a particular web site or portal. You can think of them as the "behind the scenes" data providers for information sites. Database providers and content delivery has been around for years, such as news wires or stock quote delivery over proprietary systems. However, as in a lot of things, with the rise of the Net, data providers are getting bigger and providing a larger variey of web-ready content.

Hoover's Online, itself a web-content provider, lists over 130 "Internet and Online Content providers" in their company profiles. These are the people to contact if you want to add valuable content to your web site.
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SITE REVIEW:

We've Signed up with an OCP (Online Content Provider)!
Daily Web News from Digital Ripple
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For an example of daily web news delivered to a customized web site, check out the daily web news offered by Digital Ripple. Just go to our web site, and select "Daily Web News" from the drop-down menu on the right. We get this for free and it adds some valuable information to our web site. We're thinking of syndicating the Ripple Effect - any comments from our loyal readers?

Ripple Effect "Rock"

What's a Ripple Effect Rock? Well, think of a rock thrown in a lake, and how the water ripples outward. This section of the newsletter covers developments and technologies that we think might soon cause a "ripple effect" in business or society.

Ripple Rock for February 7, 2000: