About Firepad

FireViewer headquarters
Firepad is a pioneer in mobile device multimedia. Founded in 1999, Firepad in 2000 released FireViewer® for viewing high-definition zoomable images, live video, hyperlinks and push/pull updates to consumer mobile devices. FireViewer was for years a top-5 PalmOS product at major reseller sites.

During 2000 and 2001, Firepad released:

  • FirePublisher® to push updates over the internet to FireViewer users, and to act as a proxy server for direct Web browsing from within FireViewer.
  • FireProducer® to stream live video from any supported Windows PC cam over the air to wireless Palm devices.
  • FireConverter® to compress images in a wide variety for formats, at up to 16,000 by 16,000 pixels for viewing within FireViewer.
FireViewer achieved many firsts withinin the world of consumer mobile computing, including the first handheld video player, first wireless video, first zooming images, first vector-based images, and first combined video monitor and configurable remote control system over HTTP. Most of these achievements were not matched by any other vendor until years later.

During 2001, over 99% of all seed-stage startups in Silicon Valley failed. Firepad survived, and remained one of the top 5 PalmOS apps, by downloads and sales, for years thereafter. It has been successful in a number of "vertical" markets, including emergency management, firefighting, police, security, and the military. Health care giant Novartis has bought thousands of units of FireViewer for its sales staff. General Motors has used FireViewer as a mobile multimedia reference system at trade shows.

FireViewer Suite (which includes FireViewer and FireConverter) and FireProducer are available for retail sale through MobiHand. The French and German language versions of FireViewer Suite are available for retail sale through Pdassi -- see our product catalog for details. All other products, including FirePublisher, can be purchased in blocks of seat licenses to support legacy PalmOS devices. Firepad today also licenses the FireViewer source code.

Questions about FireViewer should be directed to customer support.