Sirit has announced a new line of Secure Digital (SDIO) and USB based multi-protocol 'plug and play' products, supporting a wide range of RFID applications. SiritNow's SDIO wireless RFID module is compatible with Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices.

Jeff Hawkins gave an interview this morning on National Public Radio. A clip of his appearance is now online. In the interview, Jeff talks about his current work at his new company Numenta, his theory on how the brain works and potential commercial applications for his new pattern recognition and machine learning technology.

PalmGear founder Kenny West has announced that he has left his position with Motricity. Mr. West has been a pioneer in the Palm software industry and helped kick-start the development of mobile software distribution websites.

SanDisk has announced that its SanDisk Ultra II SD Plus card is getting a capacity bump to 2 GB. The Ultra II SD card combines USB connectivity and flash memory storage. It works seamlessly in any SD card slot and can also be used as a high-speed USB 2.0 flash drive without the need for a card reader.

Palm today announced that employees at Ariba Inc, a leading spend management solutions provider, have adopted Palm Treo smartphones to service global customers around the clock. Powered by Good Technology's GoodLink software and service, Treo smartphones go beyond providing secure wireless email, with access to business-critical applications.

Softick has released Audio Gateway v1.0, the first Bluetooth A2DP audio streaming solution for Palm OS handhelds. Audio Gateway enables users to connect a Palm OS handheld or Treo 650 to Bluetooth stereo headphones and listen to digital audio played by Palm OS applications including: MP3 players, audio book readers, and games.

Datastick Systems has released the first handheld PDA-based Vibration Spectrum Analyzer / Data Collector for Palm Powered devices. Vibration Spectrum Analyzers are used for industrial machine diagnostics and predictive maintenance. The software provides easy operation with open PC software that allows push-button data export to any PC running Microsoft Excel.

MetaView Soft's free and open source adobe PDF document reader has now reached version 1.1. PalmPDF is a native PDF file viewing application for Palm OS 5 devices.

A new marketing research report has been released that measures consumer sentiment in the smartphone market. The report looks at brand loyalty and online popularity of Palm Treo, Research In Motion (RIM) BlackBerry, HP iPAQ and Motorola Q devices.

Today is the big day in the RIM vs. NTP patent suit. A US judge is hearing arguments from both companies and is expected to reach a decision on the shutdown (update: no shutdown ruling today). Whatever the outcome, this whole ordeal has forced IT managers and companies to take a closer look at alternatives to BlackBerry devices. In this article, PalmInfocenter takes a look at Palm OS wireless messaging alternatives to the RIM push email service.

UPDATED
The Treo notebook article posted earlier today also contains an interesting statement that reads "According to a Palm spokesperson, no new Palm-based Treos are due before mid 2006."

Could this mean we may not see the rumored Palm OS Treo 700p until summer?