LapPack combines utilities for the road - Rupp Corp.'s utility program - Software Review - Evaluation

Home Office Computing, April, 1992 by Russel Letson

AT A GLANCE: A collection of 10 applications and utilities aimed at laptop users: file transfer, information management, task switching, telecommunication, and other functions.

DOCUMENTATION: Single manual for half the utilities; separate manuals for each of the others--all descriptive and well organized.

EASE OF USE: Varies according to application.

SUPPORT: From individual manufacturers and from Rupp Corporation via CompuServe.

VERSION REVIEWED: Varies according to application

LIST PRICE: $300

STREET PRICE RANGE: $180-$230

SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS: Varies according to application.

PUBLISHER: Rupp Corp., 7285 Franklin Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90046; (213) 850-5394

WARRABTUES: Varies according to application. Only 90 days for Maximizer and Switch-It; none ("as is") for Co-Session and SitBack

LapPack is a collection of programs form various companies for increasing the productivity of laptop users. Its appeal is not that there's anything new here, since these are all established products (in fact, two of them are versions that have been superseded; more about that later). Instead, this is a one-stop-shopping combination of communications, file-transfer, and phone-book software. The major offerings are Co-Session (remote control/communications), FastLynx (file transfer), Maximizer (contact management), and Switch-It (task switching). In the utilities category are the CompuServe Information Manager, EZC Smart Cursoer, FastJuice (battery monitoring), FastLock (security), Mergelt! PhoneList (phone-book database), and SitBack (automatic backup).

The good stuff. The major offering represent real value. FastLynx is an established file-transfer program (previously Fastwire II), a solid performer with a good user interface. To connect computers you plug the supplied special cables into serial or parallel ports (or both; the program is smart enough to determine which will perform better). A worthy utility is the independent program EBox, an expansion-box emulator that provides electronic docking, so that two computers can share disk drives and printers--sort of a two-station, peer-to-peer network.

Co-Session provides a different and rather specialized kind of intersystem communication: One computer can drive another by modem or direct serial connection. This category of program is especially useful for support people who need to monitor clients' work or for on-the-road workers who need access to data and resources on the desktop computers back at the office.

Switch-It offers one of the most desirable features of environments such as Windows and Desqview--task switching--without the complexity. Unlike those systems, Switch-It is not multitasking; that is, it cannot run more than one application at a time (downloading a file in the background while working on a spreadsheet in the foreground, for example). Instead, it maintains work-space environments for several programs and moves them to the disk or expanded memory on command. There is also a clipboard function that allows you to transfer data from one application to another in a hotkey-activated cut-and-paste process.

The Maximizer is a personal- and business-information organizer that combines an address-book database, a contact manager, an appointment calendar, and a dairy into one package that is much more ambitious than Mergelt! PhoneList. Maximizer manages client data, form letters, to-do lists, and expense accounts with a menu system that requires a bit of getting used to--not surprising in a program that takes on as much as this one does. As the electronic equivalent of a Daytimer or Dayrunner, Maximizer is a natural candidate for operation under Switch-It, which would turn it into a super TSR.

While the programs I've called major are all useful, the minor entries are a decidedly mixed bag. EZC Smart Cursor, for example, does a competent job of changing the cursor size and shape to make it more visible on a laptop screen, but no more competently than any number of shareware or freeware programs. FastJuice is an unsophisticated battery-monitor program, better than a wristwatch but less sophisticated than Battery Watch (especially for laptops specifically supported by the latter). Mergelt! PhoneList is a basic address-and phone-book database whose special virtue is the ability to combine multiple lists into one. However, since non-PhoneList-generated files (for example, dBase or ASCII files) cannot be merged or imported, this program is limited.

So what's this doing here? The real anomaly for a laptop bundle is SitBack. Automated, unattended file backup is certainly attractive on a desktop machine, but a laptop is rearely left running unattend, and it lacks storage devices for anything more than small-scale backups. I see little use for this program in this context.

FastLock poses a different problem. The program protects your data by "locking" the boot partition of the hard-disk drive until it gets a password--something that even under the best of circumstances I would undertake with trepidation, since I can hardly remember my MCI Mail password. And consider the caveats with which the manufacturer surrounds FastLock: It does not get along with networks or mutitasking systems (for example, Windows, Desqview, or Switch-It), nor is it compatible with disk caching or resident programs (there go Battery Watch and a bunch of other laptop standards). And the drive must be locked before each power down. The thought of navigating all these perils made me too scared to test the thing lest I miss a lick and trash the disk or have to pay Rupp to crack the encrypted password.