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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE -
April 29, 2005 LandWare
Announces the Availability of the All-New Pocket Quicken®
That Includes Over 100 Customer Driven Enhancements.
ORADELL, NJ - April 29, 2005 – LandWare
today launched Pocket Quicken 2.5, the latest in the
line of legendary software finance managers that have been created for
over a half dozen handheld platforms. This completely re-written version
of the award-winning, easy to use personal money management application
runs on Palm Powered handhelds such as the T5 and smartphones including
the Treo. For the over 15 million Quicken customers, Pocket Quicken
remains the official companion product and the only software that
currently enables direct synchronization with Quicken 2005. Consumers
can instantly mobilize their financial data with a single HotSync,
enabling on-the-go access to account details, credit limits, transaction
histories, exchange rates and more. Pocket Quicken’s rank as the
number-one selling handheld application for the past three years1
is testament to its superior functionality and design.
“LandWare has once again delivered a robust mobile companion for Quicken
users that offers seamless integration for our Windows and Macintosh
customers,” remarked Serdar Akin, (Senior Project Manager for
third-party implementations) at Intuit. “By listening and responding to
customer feedback, LandWare has greatly improved upon their already
world class product.”
Automatic Configuration Adapts the Program to an Individual’s Needs
For the first time, Pocket Quicken presents a series of simple to
answer profiling dialogs when the program is first run. The consumer is
now able to have the program automatically configure itself to best suit
their needs. This is the perfect complement to the customer who may have
obtained their software over the web or wirelessly from a cellphone
carrier's online store. If the consumer intends to use Pocket Quicken to
sync with their desktop, then the program will function as a traditional
handheld companion. Once connected to their desktop via cable, cradle or
wirelessly via Bluetooth, Quicken owners simply HotSync to seamlessly
transfer to and from Quicken.
Pocket Quicken can also act as the consumer’s primary finance
application because it can instantly set up a standard set of
categories, currencies and accounts with a single button tap and begin
to operate as their stand alone finance manager. Consumers can customize
their category and class list by adding new ones, editing existing
entries, or deleting the ones they know they will never use.
Reports Show Financial Activity at a Glance
The new Pocket Quicken is like having an intelligent report
generator with the consumer’s complete financial details in their
pocket. The new Quick Reports section can summarize transactions using
any combination of amount, payee, category, class, memo, account and/or
transaction attribute. Thus with just two taps the consumer can quickly
check how many times they have filled up at the gas station this month
or used their new credit card to rent movies at Blockbuster in the past
90 days. If an unfamiliar entry should is spotted - a single tap allows
the consumer to view/edit the original transaction; and then once the
transaction is reviewed and closed, the report is back on screen.
Treo Savvy Operation Offers One Handed Control
Special attention has been given to optimizing Pocket Quicken for
smartphones such as palmOne’s Treo 600/650. These improvements include
complete support of the Treo’s standard 5-way navigation button and
LandWare’s exclusive ThumbNav™ application control. This unique
operational design enlarges all primary controls so they are easily
selected by navigation button, stylus or even a thumb and positions the
focus of the software automatically to the default selection. Even
pop-up menus are enlarged and pre-selected for fast activation. This
streamlined access to the most commonly used controls means the
smartphone customer can operate the program quickly, efficiently and
single handily.
In addition to the new Treo integration, Pocket Quicken takes advantage
of the high-resolution screens to display financial data as never
previously possible on a pocket device. With its full support for
high-resolution fonts and graphics, Pocket Quicken’s new streamlined
interface makes the ugliest of finances more appealing while displaying
them in absolute clarity. Row shading color and font size is now a
program preference setting. So, whether the customer is wearing a Fossil
Wrist Watch PDA, flying above the clouds in Garmin’s Palm OS Aviation
GPS Handheld, communicating with PalmOne’s high resolution Treo 650 or
working with the Tungsten T5’s extra large display, Pocket Quicken is
built to take full advantage of the available screen real estate and
resolution.
New Transaction Priority Mode Means Data Capture Always Comes First
With the new Pocket Quicken a customer is always up to date with
their financial standing, since transactions are captured as they happen
from anywhere within the application. Even if viewing a budget or
account list the moment a consumer starts entering the first letter of a
payee's name, the new transaction screen is automatically displayed.
Utilizing Pocket Quicken's quickfill and memorized payee list day-to-day
transactions may be recorded with as little as two strokes of the stylus
or taps on a built-in keyboard. In addition, transactions can now be
split 30 ways with categories, classes and memos.
When Pocket Quicken is used a stand alone financial manager consumers
can confirm that all entered transactions match up with bank records
with the new fully featured reconciliation functionality. Research shows
that Americans spend an average of 2.2 hours per month balancing their
checkbooks2 so Pocket Quicken’s ability to perform this task
on a handheld means customers have far greater opportunity to tackle it
anytime their schedule allows. Even on a train, subway or plane a
customer can now ensure that their records are in sync with their bank’s
statements.
A Helping Hand to Keeping on a Budget
Pocket Quicken budgets provide a quick and easy way to track how
much has been spent or earned on any given category. In addition, Pocket
Quicken can even suggest a budget amount based on prior financial
activity. In order to determine how a budget has been used, the new
QuickZoom feature instantly displays the transactions that contribute to
any given budget.
For the first time automatically scheduling payments/deposits can now be
performed in Pocket Quicken. The program's flexible scheduling options
allows transactions to be automatically entered weekly, monthly, last
day of month, quarterly and more. A pop-up reminder appears when a
transaction comes due and the customer then has multiple options to
choose from including record the payment right away, skip the payment or
defer the entry until the next time the consumer opens the application.
Greater Account Control, Security and Foreign Currency Support
Pocket Quicken has greatly enhanced its ability to display financial
account details. A single tap provides a new succinct report which
summarizes financial activity, including current and ending balance,
credit limit, account number and the primary contact – who can be dialed
directly if the software is running on a smartphone. As with the
previous versions of the software, there is no limit to the number of
accounts the consumer can track or the length of historical transactions
they wish to keep on their organizer.
When using foreign currencies, the program allows the customer to
seamlessly record a hotel bill paid in Swiss Francs or gifts purchased
in New Zealand dollars with an American credit card, while the program
automatically takes care of the currency conversion. The program now
allows the consumer to maintain an extensive editable list of currencies
(including rates, symbols, shortcut keys, etc.) and a currency type can
be set for each individual account.
Additional Enhancements and Features to the New Pocket Quicken
- The ability to optionally protect the financial
information within by requiring a PIN code in order to open the
application.
- Enhanced calculator that fills in the payment or
deposit amount based on the calculation result.
- Full support for palmOne’s Graffiti 2 engine
provides customers with Tungsten and Zire handhelds with improved
handwriting recognition.
- Looking to: Create a Quick Report? Trim
Transactions? Reconcile? The new Pocket Quicken contains an extensive
integrated help system with many operational guidelines, hints and
tips.
- When a payment is entered that will put a balance
total over the maximum as specified for that account, Pocket Quicken
will display a yellow exclamation mark next to the account name; it’s
the program way of sounding a silent alarm.
Pricing and Availability
Pocket Quicken 2.5 for Palm OS is available now, and can be
electronically downloaded at
http://www.landware.com/pocketquicken/. The product retails at
$34.95, and special upgrading pricing is available for registered owners
of Pocket Quicken 1.0 and 2.0. Consumers who have purchased Pocket
Quicken 2.0 after January 1, 2005 qualify for a free upgrade to Pocket
Quicken 2.5. Pocket Quicken 2.5 requires Palm OS 3.5 or later.
About LandWare
LandWare, Inc., a privately held corporation in Oradell, New Jersey,
was founded in 1994. LandWare publishes quality solutions for handheld
and smartphone devices. In addition to Pocket Quicken other solutions
include Wine Enthusiast Guide, Shanghai Pocket Essentials, Leonard
Maltin Movie Guide, MONEY Magazine Financial Assistant, OmniSolve, and
more. More information can be found at
www.landware.com.
About Intuit
Intuit Inc. (Nasdaq: INTU) is a leading provider of business and
financial management solutions for small and mid-sized businesses,
consumers and accounting professionals. Its flagship products and
services, including QuickBooks®, Quicken® and TurboTax® software,
simplify small business management and payroll processing, personal
finance, and tax preparation and filing. ProSeries® and Lacerte® are
Intuit's leading tax preparation software suites for professional
accountants.
Founded in 1983, Intuit had annual revenue of more than $1.6 billion in
its fiscal year 2003. The company has nearly 7,000 employees with major
offices in 13 states across the U.S. and offices in Canada and the
United Kingdom. More information can be found at
www.intuit.com.
1 Amazon.com
2 Roper Starch/Quicken Omnibus Survey, July 2000
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Intuit, the Intuit logo, and Quicken, among others,
are registered trademarks and/or registered service marks of Intuit Inc.
in the United States and other countries. Pocket Quicken is used by
LandWare, Inc. under license. LandWare is a registered trademark of
LandWare, Inc. Palm OS and HotSync are registered trademarks and Palm
and Palm Powered are trademarks of pa1mOne, Inc. or its subsidiaries.
Other parties' trademarks or service marks are the property of their
respective owners and should be treated as such.
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