According to Eugene, Palm Infocenter's unofficial Tokyo corespondent, the NR70 and NR70V won't be available in retail stores in Tokyo for much longer. He spoke with the staff at a retail store there about why they had no NR series units on display and was told that Sony had stopped shipping those models. They are, however, still available through SonyStyle Japan.

This is the time of the year when Japanese electronics makers release their Fall offerings, so Sony could be close to announcing replacements for the NR series. It was this time last year that Sony announced the N760C. In August of 2000 it launched the Clié line in the U.S.

In what may be further evidence, several U.S. webstores have recently cut their prices for the NR70V. PC Mall, eCOST.com, and BuyDig.com are all offering it for around $500, down from the original $600.

Several days ago, it was acknowledged by Palm Inc. that the m130's screen could not display the number of colors the company had previously advertised. The m130 starts with a 12-bit screen and uses dithering to increase the number of apparent colors displayed. Palm originally believed that this allowed the m130 to display the same number of colors as a 16-bit screen, which is 65,536. Instead, Palm's system can display what it describes as 58,621 color combinations.

Spokesperson Marlene Somsak has said this was an honest mistake on Palm's part and apologized on behalf of her company for this error and an apology appears on Palm's website, though not in a prominent place.

Several news sources, including Wired and Cnet have incorrectly said that Palm isn't going to reimburse m130 customers for its error. In fact, Palm is currently trying to decide on the best way to compensate these people.

PC Mall is offering the Sony NR70V for $500, which is $100 off the list price. Click on "Buy Now!" to get the reduced price. -2palm

For some reason, Palm's stock went up almost 40% yesterday, rising from 71 cents to 99 cents. Scuttlebutt is this was caused by rumors that Palm will be bought out by Dell, Sony, or Apple. Handspring's shares went up about 28%. -Ed

tDevice offers the Q-Pad for Palm m500 series, which combines the functions of a protective leather case and a keyboard. The case is reinforced with steel and is about 3 by 5 inches and less than one inch thick with the handheld inside. Opening the case reveals a QWERTY keyboard with 60 keys. News Editor Ed Hardy has this review.

Handango has released some statistics about the handheld applications, eBooks, and other content it sold last quarter. Plenty of people seem to be using their handhelds to get things done. The most popular category of applications was Personal Productivity, with 23% of sales. However, there seems to be a lot of goofing off going on, too, as in second place was Games at 20% and Entertainment applications was third at 18% of the applications Handango sold. The Entertainment category includes eBooks, videos, and that sort of thing.

The average selling price for an application was $20.

STNE Corp. has lowered its prices on screen repairs. Palm V, Vx, and IIIc screen repairs are now just $69 while Sony ones are now $90.

7 Hexes is a Myst-like game that it's developer, R. Zane Rutledge, says will be available soon. It was demonstrated as TickTock at PalmSource in February. -mtg101

Last week, it was revealed that Acer would be releasing its two new Palm OS handhelds in Europe. According to Cnet, the s50 and s60 will be available not just in Europe and Asia but worldwide next month. Both models have hi-res, 12-bit, TFT color screens and Memory Stick slots. In addition, the s60 will have a built-in MP3 player and a voice recorder. The s50 will cost $300 and the s60 will be $360 when they become available in September.

Update: Acer has updated its website to include information on the s50 and s60. It confirms that these models will be able to run non-memory Memory Sticks.

Mobility Electronics has purchased Cutting Edge Software, developer of Quickoffice, for $3 million in cash and stock.

Vaja Cases now offers a customizable leather flipcase for the T665C. The purchaser can choose from a wide variety of colors and other options and even have it embossed with a logo. Prices start at $70.

Last month, an image was released of a prototype handheld from Palm Inc. that would run Palm OS 5. It was called the Oslo and rumor had it Palm would be releasing it next month.

According to PDA Buzz, this device will never be released. Quoting "reliable sources", the article says that Oslo was a prototype that the company decided months ago to not make into a shipping product.

All wireless devices released in the U.S. need to get approval from the FCC. When this happens, the FCC posts information about the device on its website, making it an excellent source of information on not-yet announced wireless handhelds.

The latest device to be outed in this way is the Samsung SPH-i500, a Palm OS smartphone that will feature a clamshell design with a color screen and hardware buttons on one side and the Graffiti area, rocker switch, and telephone dial pad on the other. It is not yet known when this device will be available or at what price.

Palm, Inc. has announced the Education Purchase Program, which allows schools and colleges to receive additional free handhelds when they buy in bulk. For example, a school that buys 500 Palm handhelds will get 72 more for free. -PR

Yesterday, with the release of the SJ20, Sony has officially put the S360 on its list of discontinued devices. -Terry Salmi