Worldwide PDA shipments exceeded 2.8 million units, as Gartner Claims that for the first time Microsoft Windows CE licensees out shipped the Palm OS for the first time. Yet palmOne still retains the leading spot during a declining quarter.

Following the announcement of their withdraw from the US Handheld market, Sony is getting ready to end all Clie developer support. At the end of the year Sony will completely end their US Clie developer support program and all related services.

A number of new Voice control applications have recently been developed for the palmOne Treo smartphone series and certain Palm OS 5 handhelds with microphones. These new apps offer voice dialing of contacts and voice control of many common PDA functions.

The Dom Perignon IV Speed Contest ended on November 7th, with the forty participants recording an impressive average speed of 52 words per minute for text entry on a handheld! In addition, it saw the 80 WPM mark broken for the third time in the history of this biennial contest.

The official version of PAC MAN is now available for the Palm OS, a NS Basic programming book has been greatly updated, Brando is offering free shipping, a massive ringtone suite has been released for the Treo and much more in this quickies update.

palmOne has closed a representative office in Shanghai, China. The company has also temporarily withdrawn from the Chinese handheld market.

palmOne today announced that Pacific Union Real Estate, one of the best-known, high-end real estate firms in California, has initially deployed more than 70 Treo 600 smartphones to its agents and has plans to roll out Treo devices to an additional 50-plus agents set to come on board later this year.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) today announced the adoption of Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.0 + EDR (Enhanced Data Rate). The new spec offers increased data rates, up to three times current levels, support for running multiple Bluetooth devices simultaneously and lower power consumption for improved battery life.

The palmOne Treo 650 smartphone is now available for pre-order from the palmOne store. Prices range from $449 with a new service plan to $599 with an existing one, all orders from the palmOne store come with free shipping.

Red Mercury development group has put together a good technical overview of the new non volatile Flash memory system used in the new palmOne Tungsten T5 and Treo 650.

David Pogue, co-author of the book Piloting Palm, has just published his review of the palmOne Tungsten T5 in the New York Times. The review comes to a number of insightful conclusions about the T5 including the lack of Wi-Fi as well as the removal of key features present in the T3.