FIRST BROADBAND CO. TO JOIN INITIATIVE TO BUILD PROTOCOL FOR SYNCHRONIZATION OF MOBILE DEVICES.Excite@Home announced the company's membership in the recently formed SyncML Initiative. SyncML, formed by IBM (International Business Machines Corporation, Armonk, NY, www.ibm.com) The world's largest computer company. IBM's product lines include the S/390 mainframes (zSeries), AS/400 midrange business systems (iSeries), RS/6000 workstations and servers (pSeries), Intel-based servers (xSeries) , Lotus, Motorola, Nokia, Palm Inc. and Starfish Software Starfish was founded in 1994 by Philippe Kahn, best known for his invention of the camera phone and his most recent company Fullpower Technologies. The founding vision of Starfish was global synchronization and integration of wireless and wireline devices, which translated with the , develops and promotes a single common data synchronization Keeping data in two or more computers up-to-date so that each repository contains the identical information. Data in handheld devices and laptops often require synchronization with the data in a desktop machine or server. protocol to make data and personal information consistent across multiple networks, platforms and devices. Excite@Home, a leader in broadband, is the first broadband company and portal service to join the initiative. SyncML is an XML-based synchronization (1) See synchronous and synchronous transmission. (2) Ensuring that two sets of data are always the same. See data synchronization. (3) Keeping time-of-day clocks in two devices set to the same time. See NTP. protocol designed to offer consumers more flexibility in sharing information with their mobile devices. Developing one protocol would enable mobile consumers to use applications and information, such as calendar information, e-mail and address books, on a mobile device and, in turn, synchronize any updates across their PC, Web server, laptop, PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) A handheld computer for managing contacts, appointments and tasks. It typically includes a name and address database, calendar, to-do list and note taker, which are the functions in a personal information manager (see PIM). , mobile phone or other devices. Currently, there are a variety of proprietary data synchronization protocols for mobile devices. Each of these protocols is only available for selected transports, implemented on a selected subset of devices and accessible to a small set of networked data. The absence of single synchronization standard pose barriers to end users, device manufacturers, applications develops and service providers. |
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