The Consumer Electronics Stock Blog is reporting that a few Bear Stearns analysts expect Palm to launch the 700w with Sprint, sooner than was expected. The article claims, Based on our channel checks, it appears that Sprint is likely to offer the latest PALM Treo 700w (Windows version) as early as end of February, which would be ahead of schedule. Sprint version of Treo 700 was not expected until end of March at the earliest based on the historical length of the exclusivity agreements with carriers (i.e., 3-6 months).

Mark/Space today announced that they will be releasing a universal application update to the Missing Sync for Palm OS. It will be a free update for owners of version 5.0, version 5.1 will ship as a universal binary, providing full support for both PowerPC and Intel-based Macs. More...

The Washington Post has published an article titled, Palm OS vs. Windows Mobile: The Debate Continues. The author lays out an interesting comparison of the Palm Treo 650 and the Treo 700w. He tests the execution of common tasks on each smartphone in a step by step fashion and looks at the installation of new apps on each device.

Visto Corporation announced today that it has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Good Technology. The suit, which alleges that Good's products and services infringe on multiple patents held by Visto, was filed in the U.S. District Court in the Eastern District of Texas. More...

twrock has put together another good case review. This time he takes a look at the Boxwave Armor Case for the Palm TX and Tungsten T5 handhelds. Ron was looking for a more "form-fitting" case for his TX and decided to test out this version from Boxwave. Read on for the full review.

The Stanford PalmPilot User Group meets at 7pm on the first Tuesday of each month. The February 7th meeting will feature a demo of the Palm Treo 700w Windows Mobile smartphone, by Adam Moise of Palm, Inc. More...

Symantec today announced Symantec AntiVirus for Handhelds Corporate Edition 3.5, a comprehensive virus protection solution designed to secure wireless devices running on Palm OS, and Microsoft Windows Mobile platforms. Symantec AntiVirus for Handhelds Corporate Edition 3.5 helps safeguard corporate assets and protects against the potential spread of malicious code downloaded from the Web, email or a Wi-Fi connection, or beamed via Bluetooth or infrared ports. More...

Michael Mace has posted an editorial on the Palm LifeDrive on his blog. He lays out some interesting thoughts on the LifeDrive. He makes the case that the device isn't doing as well as it could in the marketplace because it tries to be everything to everyone without doing one thing particularly well.

Palm has released new drivers for the Palm Universal keyboard that adds compatibility with the Palm TX handheld. The version 1.10 driver is for the Palm TX only and also includes a few fixes.

Longtime PIC member twrock has put together a nice review of the Brando Workshop Metal Case for the Palm TX and Tungsten T5. The Brando metal case is a nice protective hard case. It is made of aircraft aluminum and is available in metallic silver or metallic black. Read on for the full review.

Palm has released a small update for the Sprint PCS Treo 650 smartphone. The version 1.13 updater includes the E911 update and improves memory handling.