Technology Watch

DURABLE LAPTOPS Itronix Spokane, WA—Itronix, a subsidiary of Burlington, MA-based Acterna Corp., has announced the launch of its GoBook Notebook. The notebook, meant for insurance agents in the field, has both portable and vehicle-based application abilities. Itronix also boasts that it's the fastest field-based notebook of its kind and can withstand such rigors as water, shock, being dropped and extreme temperature. The GoBook has an Intel Pentium III or Celeron processor, full-feature radio bay with LAN/PAN/WAN options, and built-in fax modem. The notebook is the first in its category to offer Bluetooth-ready architecture. Bluetooth allows users to wirelessly communicate with printers or other peripherals—enabling avoidance of onboard radio alternatives. INQUIRIES: www.itronix.com

E-QUOTES WideLines New York—WideLines, LLC, an insurance marketplace, announced its use of the world's first Web site utilizing patent-pending, XML technology to facilitate fast, accurate and secure commercial insurance distribution over the Internet. Agents and brokers will have free and unlimited access to instant quotes and specialty and standard insurance products provided by the agent, broker and provider-linking Web site. WideLines licenses its XML technology from XML Industries, LLC (New York) which creates proprietary XML-based software. INQUIRIES: www.widelines.com

E-CRM Point Information Systems Wellesley, MA—e-CRM solutions provider, Point Information Systems, Inc., released e-point 5. The product supports the customer life cycle, based on their interaction preference. Customers can choose voice, Web, chat, e-mail, fax, face-to-face, wireless application protocol (WAP) and personal digital assistant devices. E-point 5 enables organizations and their customers' communications across assisted and unassisted channels and is based on open standards such as XML, COM and CORBA. INQUIRIES: www.pointinfo.com

INTERNET SERVERS IBM Armonk, NY—IBM is preparing for what it calls the next generation of e-business. According to IBM, it has developed and released the IBM eServer for the new world of unprecedented demands that will be set upon the underlying e-business infrastructure. The server features mainframe-class reliability and scalability, support of open standards for new application development, as well as the capacity to manage new demands on e-business and its evolution. INQUIRIES: www.ibm.com

CAPACITY GENERATION Porivo Technologies, Inc. Research Triangle Park, NC—Porivo Technologies, Inc., developer of distributed computer technologies, has launched the Porivo PEER. The Java-based application harnesses spare computing capacity of PCs. Users can then contribute that capacity to large-scale computing projects. According to Will Holmes, CEO of Porivo, "Instead of looking at their computer as a beige box that sits on top of their desk, people will view their PC as a pool of resources that can be shared among multiple tasks." INQUIRIES: www.porivo.com

SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT Princeton Softech Princeton, NJ—Princeton Softech, a subsidiary of e-business software provider Computer Horizons Corp. (Mountain Lakes, NJ), announced its Component Factory Release 2.0. According to Princeton Softech, the software for developing and deploying high-performance e-business solutions increases e-business application speed and development while reducing cost and risk. INQUIRIES: www.princetonsoftech.com