Last updated - October 28, 2001
A short history of the REX 6000 - a delicious mixture of fact and opinion
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The first REX (the REX 3) was initially introduced by Franklin in 1997, as a joint venture with Citizen and Starfish. Starfish software was a Phillipe Kahn (he of Borland fame). It looked like this:
Franklin had a long history (since 1986) of manufacturing software-intensive handheld devices, and their new toy seemed revolutionary at that time. But it might have been too early. Technology dictated that the device lacked some basic features (mainly input capabilities). Most people considered this to be more important than the form factor, so they preferred Palm and other devices.
You can find info on a REX 1 at this site, but I've never seen it offered in the US. Here is a great summary of the early days of the REX and other "ancient" organizers with some shots of some funky Citizen products. Quite interesting reading, really. (Thanks to B2 from REX Rumor Central.)
The REX Pro (now known as the REX 5000/5001) was released in 1998, and improved on the REX 3 by adding more memory (256K to 512K), providing a much speedier processor, and by adding the ability to add/edit data on the device. The edit capability was exciting to REX users, but rudimentary compared to what was available on the Palm and other PDAs.. The REX Pro/5000 is still available for purchase, and looks like this:
Note the extra button (third from the top) that has a pencil icon. This button allows users to add and edit content on the REX Pro/5000. Unfortunately, it is a bit tedious to do some operations, as you have to use the up an down arrow buttons (bottom two buttons) to make selections from a character set to spell things or enter numbers.
In 1998 Franklin lost some $30 million, and blamed it mainly on the REX. So on September 27, 1999, Franklin sold the Rex family to Xircom for of $13,250,000 (Look how accurate these executives can get). And Dirk Gates (Xircom CEO) said: "... We will continue to expand the REX capabilities THROUGH INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS" (my emphasis). And this is exactly the problem.
[Ed. note: Here's what Xircom said about the purchase in 1999: "In the fall of 1999, Xircom purchased the REX from Franklin electronic publishers, including the REX-3 and the REX-Pro5. Franklin, based in Burlington, NJ also makes electronic reference products such as small electronic language translators, thesaurus', spell checkers and even electronic wine guides, restaurant guides and bibles. The REX is now fully owned, supported, marketed and developed by Xircom, and the REX 6000 is the first new product developed and introduced in the line under the Xircom brand."]
While Franklin had some substantial software experience, Xircom didn't have extensive expertise in software development. They did hardware - modems, networks, that sort of thing. In fact, the only thing that probably connected them to the Rex was that they were both doing PCMCIA. The Rex 5000 went from Franklin to Xircom as-is. The only thing they modified was the logo This is why the REX Pro was solid and reliable, even when it started to bear Xircom's name and was renamed the REX 5000.
But the Rex 6000 is a complete rework. It appears that the only part that came from the 5000 is the form factor. It has a new screen, new memory, perhaps a new processor, new batteries, even new buttons (one less than the 5000, similar to the REX 3, but still a bit different). And above all, it has NEW SOFTWARE.
This combination of new hardware and new software has resulted in a predictable amount of "1.0 release" disease. Though the device is very useful as is (and frankly, I have to admit that I really like it, warts and all) there are defiinitely a number of areas (see our Issues section on this site) in which additional work is needed. Whether Xircom (now owned by Intel) is up to the task is yet to be seen.