Vindigo Synchronizes Mac Users With Personal Navigation Software - Company Business and Marketing

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, July 17, 2000

Vindigo, a leading developer of personal navigation applications for handheld devices, announced the availability of a Vindigo Conduit for the Macintosh, opening access to its free mobile service for Palm OS-based handheld devices to Apple Macintosh users. Previously available only for PC customers, now Mac users can take advantage of the power of Vindigo's mobile entertainment guides and local content for Boston, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. to make decisions about where to East, Shop and Play. Users can download the free application for any of the five cities from the Vindigo website at www.vindigo.com.

This addition of a Mac conduit supports Vindigo's goal of offering its service to every handheld user. "Since the Vindigo service launched in late March, over 5,000 people have contacted Vindigo, asking us to support the Mac platform," says Jason Devitt, CEO and co-founder of Vindigo. "With the availability of Vindigo for the Mac, we are enabling this enthusiastic group of user to transform their Palm handhelds into personal navigators."

Vindigo draws its lifestyle information from a number of sources including zagat.com for dining information and restaurant reviews, InShop for its dynamic shopping directory and clubplanet.com, delivering up-to-the-minute details about city nightlife. Vindigo also offers content from SF Gate, the online companion to the San Francisco Chronicle, weashingtonpost.com, the online component of The Washington Post and nytoday.com, a part of New York Times Digital, the Internet division of the New York Times Company. Vindigo makes all of this content available through its intuitive and fun application, designed specifically for handheld devices, to guide users to the nearest and best restaurants, bars, nightclubs, stores, and movies playing in their city.

Vindigo is compatible with all devices based on the Palm OS including the Palm Professional, Palm III, Palm V and Palm VII (in offline mode) series from Palm Inc., the Handspring Visor, IBM WorkPad and the Symbol Technologies SPT 1500 and 1700 series. Minimum system requirements for the desktop component of the software include: Mac OS 8.0 and higher for Macintosh uses, while PC users need Windows 95, 98 or 2000 (Windows NT users require service pack 3), Netscape Navigator 4.0 or Internet Explorer 4.0. Vindigo also requires the Palm OS v2.0.5 and HotSync Manager 2.6 for machines with a USB connection to their Palm OS device, and HotSync 2.1 or later for all others. Vindigo takes up at least 435K of memory on a Palm-compatible device; the exact amount depending on the options a user selects.