Rae Assist was a software developed and distributed by

Rae Technology Rae Technology was a software company founded as a spin-off from Apple Computer in 1992. Rae Technology was best known for its Personal Information Manager Rae Assist and for being the predecessor of NetObjects, Inc. After transferring new develop ...

from 1993 to 1995. Rae Assist (or shortly "Assist") was one of the first

Personal Information Manager A personal information manager (often referred to as a PIM tool or, more simply, a PIM) is a type of application software that functions as a personal organizer. The acronym PIM is now, more commonly, used in reference to personal information manag ...

s (PIM) and available for

Apple Macintosh The Mac (known as Macintosh until 1999) is a family of personal computers designed and marketed by Apple Inc. Macs are known for their ease of use and minimalist designs, and are popular among students, creative professionals, and software ...

Origin

At the core of Rae Assist was a technology that a group of

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus '' Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ances ...

employees had developed under the direction of

Samir Arora Samir Arora (born November 5, 1965) is an Indian-American businessman and CEO of Kyro since September 2021, the former CEO of Sage Digital from 2016 to 2021, and the former CEO of Mode Media (formerly Glam Media) from 2003 to April 2016. He was ...

. The so-called SOLO (Structure of Linked Objects) architecture was an

object-oriented Object-oriented programming (OOP) is a programming paradigm based on the concept of " objects", which can contain data and code. The data is in the form of fields (often known as attributes or ''properties''), and the code is in the form of ...

application framework In computer programming, an application framework consists of a software framework used by software developers to implement the standard structure of application software. Application frameworks became popular with the rise of graphical user inter ...

,{{cite web , title = Digital Media 24 , url = http://www.caruso.com/Digital_Media/ , publisher = The Hybrid Vigor Institute , accessdate = July 14, 2007 which could work with a variety of

databases In computing, a database is an organized collection of data stored and accessed electronically. Small databases can be stored on a file system, while large databases are hosted on computer clusters or cloud storage. The design of databases spa ...

, including 4th Dimension and SQL databases, as well as communication-based services like

e-mail Electronic mail (email or e-mail) is a method of exchanging messages ("mail") between people using electronic devices. Email was thus conceived as the electronic ( digital) version of, or counterpart to, mail, at a time when "mail" mean ...

.Gore, Andrew, Rae architecture goes Solo,

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, May 31, 1993. After Samir Arora founded

in 1992 as a spin-off from

Apple Computer Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...

, the first release of Rae Assist was due in 1993.

Release history

Rae Assist 1.0 and 1.02 In 1993 Rae Assist 1.0 was released, followed shortly by release 1.0.2 at the beginning of the year 1994.Tessler, Franklin N., Rae Assist 1.0.2. - Rae Technology's personal information management package,

MacWorld ''Macworld'' is a website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG Inc. It started life as a print magazine in 1984 and had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macin ...

, January 1, 1994. Rae Assist 1.0.2 combined several functions in one program and automatically linked contact and company information. The usage of 5 MB disk space and a minimum of 2.5 MB RAM were seen as cons at the time. A review in MacWorld found Rae Assist "innovative" but "too slow". Rae Assist 1.0.2 came with combined contact management, scheduling, and note taking. It used the 4th Dimension database engine and was targeted at

PowerBook The PowerBook (known as Macintosh PowerBook before 1997) is a family of Macintosh laptop computers designed, manufactured and sold by Apple Computer from 1991 to 2006. During its lifetime, the PowerBook went through several major revisions and ...

users. It had a list price of US$199. Rae Assist 1.5 With the release of Rae Assist 1.5 in 1995 Rae Technology addressed performance issues and improved some features.Rae Assist accelerated.

, April 1, 1994. Rae Assist 2.0 Rae Assist 2.0 was scheduled to be released in the 4th quarter of 1995. It was rewritten in

PowerMac The Power Macintosh, later Power Mac, is a family of personal computers designed, manufactured, and sold by Apple Computer as the core of the Macintosh brand from March 1994 until August 2006. Described by ''MacWorld'' as "the most important te ...

code and "smaller and faster, coming in under 1.5 MB with a launch time of 3 seconds".PIM market abuzz with activity.

, September 1, 1995. Colour, windows resizing and floating palettes were also introduced. Also in 1995 and as a cooperation with CE Software Rae Technology had started an application called DayAssist to integrate Assist into QuickMail.CE Software in partnership with Rae Technology; collaboration will deliver workgroup personal information management products.

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, January 16, 1995.

NetObjects Fusion

Rae Assist 2.0 was the last release and Rae Technology was soon to close its doors as a software vendor. The

market was emerging yet small with competitors like

Symantec Symantec may refer to: *An American consumer software company now known as Gen Digital Inc. *A brand of enterprise security software purchased by Broadcom Inc. Broadcom Inc. is an American designer, developer, manufacturer and global supplier ...

and

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. Samir Arora, his brother Sal Arora and David Kleinberg, who ran Rae Technology, saw the World Wide Web on the rise. Together with

Clement Mok Clement Mok (born 1958) is a graphic designer and author. Mok founded several design-related businesses — Studio Archetype (acquired by Sapient), CMCD and NetObjects, Inc. In 1997, Mok helped to launch the advertising campaign called "Th ...

they founded

NetObjects, Inc. NetObjects, Inc. is a software company founded in 1995 by Samir Arora, David Kleinberg, Clement Mok and Sal Arora. The company is best known for the development of NetObjects Fusion, a web design application for small and medium enterprises with ...

in 1995 to market one of the first web site building tools,

NetObjects Fusion NetObjects Fusion (NOF) is a web design tool, from 1996 to 2001 developed and distributed by NetObjects, Inc., marketed from 2001 until 2009 by Web.com (former called Website Pros), which acquired the Application software, application in 2001, an ...

, which also should rely on the SOLO framework.

References

Personal information managers Classic Mac OS software