Palm Handheld Carried Into Space

Palm Handheld Carried Into Space First South African in Space, Mark Shuttleworth, Carries the Only Handheld Computer Approved for Space Travel on Russian Soyuz Rocket SOUTH AFRICA, April 26, 2002 -- When the Russian Soyuz rocket launched yesterday, bound for the International Space Station, South African entrepreneur Mark Shuttleworth, the first African to venture into space, took with him a Palm(TM) m125 handheld -- the only handheld computer to be approved for space travel on the Soyuz. Because Mark's activities in space are scheduled down to the minute, a special scheduling application was needed to meet the unique requirements of the project. Palm South Africa worked with the "First African in Space Project" coordinators and a South African Palm OS(R) developer company, Rafale, to create a customized Date Book application so that Mark's events could be programmed on a minute-by-minute basis. "When we found out that Mark was taking a Palm handheld into space, we immediately approached a Palm OS developer to build an application to the project's specifications," said Sean Heyes, country manager for Palm South Africa. "It's been an exciting time for us, to be part of this historic occasion and have the opportunity to show the flexibility and growing reach of Palm products." The application built by Rafale allows Tsup (Moscow Mission Control), which manages all the communication between the International Space Station and Earth, to update Mark's activity schedule in an Access Database and send it to Mark via email. On receipt of the email, Mark saves the updated information to his Palm Desktop software on his laptop and then synchronizes it to his Palm m125 handheld. Mark has a mobile activity schedule on his handheld in a matter of seconds, negating the need for him to keep going back to his laptop to check his schedule. For the duration of Mark's mission, Palm handheld users can download Mark's daily activity schedule at the Palm South Africa (www.palmusergroup.co.za) and the First African in Space (www.africaninspace.co.za) websites. About Palm, Inc. Palm, Inc. is a pioneer in the field of mobile and wireless Internet solutions and a leading provider of handheld computers, according to IDC (2001). Based on the Palm OS(R) platform, Palm's handheld solutions allow people to carry and access their most critical information wherever they go. Palm(TM) handhelds address the needs of individuals, enterprises and educational institutions by offering the foundation for thousands of application solutions. Palm stock is traded on the Nasdaq national market under the symbol PALM. More information is available at http://www.palm.com/europe or visit the Palm press room at http://www.palm.com/europe/pressroom. Login: pressroomgb, password: palm. # # # Palm OS is a registered trademark and Palm is a trademark of Palm, Inc. Other brands may be trademarks of their respective owners. MEDIA CONTACT: Carsten Carlsson Audumbla Poolcat for Palm Nordic +46 8 50 31 50 02 carsten.carlsson@audumblapoolcat.com ------------------------------------------------------------ This information was brought to you by Waymaker http://www.waymaker.net The following files are available for download: http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/04/26/20020426BIT01400/wkr0001.doc http://www.waymaker.net/bitonline/2002/04/26/20020426BIT01400/wkr0002.pdf