Get your calendar, contacts, tasks and much more in your wallet (yes, your wallet). Though you probably would break this device if you did have it in your wallet, it is small enough to put there. This is the first real REX device that is a microPDA. REX has been until now a PCMCIA (PC Card) pocket organizer, but the new REX 6000 is changing all that. This new REX is stylus based, and has 4 times the memory of a REX 5000
REX runs its own special operating system, though they functions are much like a palm. Unlike its predecessors, the REX 6000 has a touch screen, enabling users it access and add data more easily then ever before. Its display is a 9-line 240x120 black and while screen, which is amazing to see on a device that is only .2 inches (1/5") thick. Though it doesn't have a program like Calligrapher, it does have a digital keyboard, which is a great improvement over the old "select the letter" input method. The REX 6000 also comes with a staggering 2mb of onboard memory. I doubt you know enough people to fill up that memory.
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Specs
Rex6000 specs
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Case: Standard Type-II PCMCIA card (PC Card) in combination metal and plastic case.
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Processor: 4.3 MHz Z80 processor embedded in a proprietary VLSI chip. Processor halts to conserve power when not busy.
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Clock: 32 KHz clock independent from CPU. Time and date is set during synchronization.
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Power: 6V in the form of two CR2016 lithium button batteries. These last 1 week to many months, depending on use. Uses cradle power when synchronizing. Automatic power-off when not in use (user adjustable).
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Memory: 2 MB permanent Flash RAM won't forget when you change the batteries. Rated 100,000 minimum erase/write cycles per cell.
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Display: Dimensions are 5 1/2 x 3 1/4 cm at 240 x 120 pixel resolution for 28,800 pixels. (For comparison, Palm has 25,600, or 160 x 160 on a larger display). Crisp monochrome reflective active matrix LCD. No backlight. Non-square pixels are taller than wide with 1.2 aspect ratio.
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Operating System: Proprietary. Can remember state of different tasks to a limited extent when switching tasks.
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Input: Touch-sensitive display for either finger or stylus with seven application buttons printed along the bottom. Five physical pushbuttons along the side. Display shows a keyboard for text entry. No input buffer.
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Sound: Watch-type "beep beep" alarm. Keyclick. Both can be turned on or off independently.
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Sync: Syncs through the PCMCIA plug on the end. Plugs into supplied cradle or a standard PCMCIA slot.
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Drivers: If plugged into a PCMCIA slot, the system sees it as a modem card. Special drivers are included for the sync cradle.
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Cradle: Either a USB cradle powered by the USB bus, or a RS-232 serial cradle powered by 4 AA batteries. Supports only the REX, not other PCMCIA cards.
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Inside
There are some pic of the cracked Rex 6000 of a friend... He
at some point while it was in his front pocket, the screen
developed a series of cracks converging on a large ink blot. So,
being the naturally curious he is, he disassebled it. You
may click on the images to get the full-size pictures.
Here are all of the parts to the Rex 6000. The LCD screen ribbon
cable is actually soldered to both the LCD panel and the REX, so there's
no hope of replacing just the panel. The large golden disc is the
speaker, as best as I can tell.
Here's a close of of the good stuff. Sorry my flash got a little
in the way, but you can read all that's readable. Note that the two
larger black chips are absolutely unmarked. No
words, letters or numbers of any kind, no matter how closely I look at
it. This picture has a lot more detail if you look at the full-size
image.
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Tips
tips and tricks for your rex
Here is a bunch of useful information that I have collected about the
REX 6000. You may find something new or useful here.
To put your REX 6000 to sleep, press and hold the Home
button. When the PDA is locked and the PIN dialog is showing, you can
press the Back button as well.
Instead of hitting the Back button when viewing web
content, hit the little W in the upper-right corner of the
screen. This is a lot easier than switching from your stylus to your
finger.
Unlike Memos, the Task List does not support categories. So,
instead of cluttering your Task List with every little thing you need to
do, create Memos for different sets of tasks, leaving the Task List for
the most important stuff. For example, "Things to Do", "Things to Get",
"Things to Fix", etc. Place square brackets, "[]", in front of each
item, then insert an "x" between the brackets when you finish. Crude,
but it works well.
Use the Sort By button on the bottom of Contacts. It's
the one with the up-down arrows next to it. Click on it, and you can
sort by First Name, Last Name, or Company. Make
sure to place the company name in the Company field of your
contacts.
You can also enter in the company name in the Last Name field,
and then enter the location in the First Name field. This
way if you want to list, say, multiple Wal-Marts, you can do it and you
can immediately tell from what city its from. (Thanks Todd
E.)
If you have a lot of memos, you can shorten the list with the
category filter. First, assign categories to all of your memos,
such as "personal", "work", "misc info", etc. Note that the REX
automatically places locked memos into the "private" category. Click on
the little downward-pointing v at the top of the display and a
list of categories will pop up. Select a category and only those memos
belonging to that category will appear. Select All Memos to list
all memos again, or No Category to list unassigned memos. This
also works well for Contacts.
Another useful trick is to assign categories to your contacts.
If you are working on a project (say, buying a house), you can place all
of the related contacts under one category (like "House"). Change the
category by clicking on the "All Contacts" menu at the top, and you will
see only those contacts who are assigned to that category.
To edit the categories in your REX 6000, first edit a memo or
a contact. Click the Category button. You are now in the category
manager. You can add New, Modify, and Delete categories from here.
Before you hit Ok, just be sure that only the categories that you want
assigned to the item are checked.
If you keep your REX in your pocket, purchase one of those flat
packages of breath mints. These are about the size of your REX. Keep it
in your pocket in front of your PDA for extra protection.
If you have the leather wallet holder for your REX, you can
bolster the protection by fitting one of those credit-card sized
calculators into those four triangular holders on the side opposite
the PDA. Be careful, as it's a tight fit.
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Synchro
synchronization
IntelliSync can be somewhat flaky at times. If at first you
don't succeed, sync, sync again. Sometimes it takes a few syncs
to "figure out" what's going on.
Often, a conflict window will pop up. If you think it is
mistaken, then it probably is! Hit the Ignore button, and sync will
proceed. During the next few syncs, IntelliSync will probably correct
the problem and the errant dialog will stop appearing.
When you use the USB dock, wait a second after the beep for
the light to flash, then press the button to sync.
The REX 6000 draws power from the dock when it is plugged in.
This includes both USB and serial versions, as well as the PCMCIA slot.
Your batteries will not be drained when you sync, so sync as often as
you like! The PDA will fall asleep in the dock, and the batteries don't
recharge, so there is not much point in leaving it there.
You do not need to tell Windows to unplug the REX when it is in your
PCMCIA port. Windows will complain when you pop it out, but as
long as sync has completed, this is harmless to both the PDA and your
computer.
When starting REX Tools, you can hold down the shift
key to prevent it from downloading the file list from your REX,
saving time. This is useful if your are just going to upload files to
the REX.
If your REX is password protected, then you can hit
Cancel when REX Tools asks for your password.
This won't affect file uploads, since the password is only used to fetch
the file listing from the unit. If you don't need to see this list, you
can save time.
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Caveats
caveats
The PIN will not protect your REX 6000 unless you set the
"Lock Rex" time to Always. There is a bug in the firmware that
allows anyone to get to your data if this time is set to anything
else.
Be careful when you tap the space bar on the on-screen
keyboard. Tapping too low can trigger one of the application buttons.
Without warning, the REX will simply discard your changes and
switch to that application.
If you forgot your PIN, and can't get into the REX, the only
solution is to Initialize the PDA from REX Tools. This will erase all of
your data, which you can restore by performing a full sync
afterward.
After Initialization and re-sync you will have to fix a few
things. Previously locked memos will be unlocked. Bitmap pictures will
have to be reloaded. Add ins will be gone, but those in Adder will still
be there (names may be wrong or blank). Personal information will have
to be reentered.
After Firmware Update a few things will go away. The first two
rows in Adder will be gone. Any patches that you installed will not be
there. However, all of your data and your Extras will still be in
place.
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FaQ
troubleshooting
The first thing to try when your REX 6000 is acting up is to
reset it. Stick the end of a paper clip into the little hole in back,
and it will reset (be gentle!) You should see the "REX" title screen for
almost a minute, then it will go to the home screen. The time should
still be correct; if it isn't, then there may be another problem.
The REX 6000 does not clean up its memory when you make changes. This
causes the memory to fill up, even when simply modifying data.
Make sure to defragment the memory periodically, either
automatically during Web Sync, or manually through REX Tools.
If you are experiencing mysterious crashes in your REX 6000,
you may have a corrupt timezone database. Go into the World Clock, and
look at the locations available. If they have all disappeared, then you
will need to reload the database. Symptoms of this problem are
mysterious crashes when using built-in functionality, and the REX not
being able to keep the correct time. Use REX Tools to upload this WorldClockFirst31.rex
file to your REX 6000 (make sure to remove the .txt extension).
If your REX 6000 fails to sync completely, then try this. Go
into your "Program Files/REX6000/IntellisyncForRex" directory, and
delete the files "tables.itb" and "tables.caf". Perform a full sync and
everything should be fine.
If your laptop computer will not sync with the REX in the PC Card
slot, you may need to free up an IRQ. Intellisync needs a free IRQ
for the COM port to communicate with the REX. If your laptop is using
all IRQ's, then it won't get one. Try disabling an unused COM port
through the Device Manager or the BIOS Setup. You can also pop out a
PCMCIA modem to grab its IRQ.
Note that the REX appears as a modem device when plugged into
a PCMCIA slot.
If your computer is being shared by the REX and another PDA,
you may have sync problems caused by the software that detects when the
sync button is pressed. Set the sync software to "manual", or remove it
from your startup programs.
If you are having problems adding, deleting, and modifying items in
your REX, the internal database may be corrupt. This can happen
if a sync is rudely interrupted. The only solution to this is to keep
trying and hope it fixes itself, or to initialize your REX through REX
Tools. Note that this will erase all data in the REX, and you will have
to perform a full sync to get it back.
If you are having trouble synchronizing Notes, or they won't
sync at all, you can try clearing out the Notes from your REX and
resynching. In REX Tools, save any Notes files that you have changed
since your last successful sync, You may want to back up all of your
Notes in your PIM as a safety precaution, as well. Now delete all
of the Notes files from your REX using REX Tools. Switch to Intellisync,
and make sure that all of the verification options are turned on for
Notes. Now hit the Synchronize button. When it asks to confirm the
changes (mostly deletions), hit the "Re-sync" button. This forces
Intellisync to copy the Notes back into the REX from your PIM.
If your update your firmware, make sure your batteries are
fresh! Weak batteries can cause the update to fail, and your REX will
not operate. To force a firmware update, hold down the Home and Reset
buttons (paperclip into little hole in back) at the same time, then
place it into the cradle and start REX Tools.
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Links
at that moment click the rex6000 image
to go to rex6000 help page
