SideKick

SideKick was an early Personal Information Manager (PIM) software application by Borland launched in 1983 under Philippe Kahn's leadership. It was notable for being a "Terminate and Stay Resident" (TSR) program, which enabled it to load into memory then return the computer to the DOS command prompt, allowing the user to load another application program, but still activate SideKick using a hot key combination (by default: Ctrl-Alt). This approach allowed instantaneous task switching in the otherwise-single-tasking DOS operating system, and its window-based interface echoed (in text format) that of the Apple Macintosh, and anticipated the eventual look of Microsoft Windows 2.0. It featured a personal calendar, text editor (with WordStar-like command interface), calculator, ASCII chart, and address book/phone dialer. According to the Borland IPO prospectus, SideKick sold more than one million copies in its first three years.

A version was also available for the early models of the Apple Macintosh.When Philippe Kahn left Borland in 1994 to found Starfish Software, he acquired all rights to Sidekick from Borland. Starfish's co-founder Sonia Lee Kahn designed the look and feel of Sidekick 95, which was launched simultaneously with Windows 95 with great success. In 1998 Philippe Kahn and Sonia Lee Kahn sold Starfish to Motorola for $325 Million in a private transaction. Software and trade-name were sold to become a division of Motorola. Motorola licensed to T-Mobile the rights to use the Sidekick trademark on the Danger Organizer. Starfish was later bought by Nokia who discontinued the product, with SideKick 99 being the last version.

Later versions of the program were made available for Windows, and were more along the lines of Microsoft Outlook, with the last versions of it supporting such features as a phone dialer, and support for syncing with Palm, Windows CE, and EPOC devices. These versions were less popular than the DOS versions, largely because the Windows environment itself provided most of the original version's key features: task switching and a collection of small utilities. It did however, include a monthly/yearly calendar and a world time map showing which parts of the world are currently in daylight or darkness. Up to eight different world cities (which could be edited) were displayed above and below the map.