Sproqit Personal Edition

Sproqit Technologies' mobile platform lets you access your email, contacts and calendar remotely via a wireless device. But instead of forwarding information from a corporate server, Sproqit provides a remote view of your Outlook inbox and local files as long as your PC is switched on and connected to the net. We looked at the single-user edition, but a workgroup release for up to 25 users is due soon.

The Sproqit system comprises a Desktop Agent on the PC and a thin-client companion on the mobile device. This first release provides access to the email, calendar, contacts and other functions of Microsoft Outlook, plus a Desktop Explorer to access files and folders.

Installation required updates to our test system. These downloaded automatically, but we had to manually configure the Desktop Agent with our email settings.

In tests we managed to use a Palmone Treo 600 handheld to remotely access emails in Outlook Express running on a Windows 2000 PC. We could read and reply to incoming emails as they arrived in the PC's inbox, view attachments and browse and transfer files.

This said, we found there was often a delay when we tried to access information not on screen. It also lost its connection with the Desktop Agent frequently. Fortunately, it works asynchronously, so you can carry on working if the connection is lost. Any actions are then enacted by the Desktop Agent once the connection is re-established.

Price:
£8 per month for a single user

Contact:
Sproqit 01892 891 521
www.sproqit.com

System requirements:

Sproqit Desktop Agent:

• Windows 98/ ME/2000/XP/NT 4 SP3
• 20MB of Ram
• 128MB disk space

Mail server support:

• Microsoft Exchange 5.5 or 2000
• Corporate Pop3 server
• Internet Pop3 server

Sproqit Companion:

• Palm OS 4.1.1
• 5.2.1 or Pocket PC 2000, 2002, 2003