Back in February, Samsung began showing off at tradeshows a new smartphone, the SPH-i330. At about that same time, an anonymous source said the company would release it in the U.S. this summer. It is beginning to look like this might be true as Samsung has recently received permission from the FCC to release it.

The i330 is an updated version of the company's I300. It will have a 240 by 160, color screen. As a smartphone, will have both wireless voice and data capabilities. It will run on CDMA 2000 1X networks and support gpsOne. It is not yet known when the i330 will be available or at what price.

Palm Inc. has leaked that it plans to announce tomorrow that it has picked Todd Bradley to be Chief Executive Officer of the company's hardware unit. He's already been in charge of the group for a year but without the formal title. Eric Benhamou will remain CEO of Palm itself. -Marcus Bankuti

TapSpring has instructions for converting its omniPPK to let users connect a Palm V folding keyboard to a Sony T or NR series handheld. -Harry Chou

Starting on Tuesday is TechXNY, which might be easier to recognize under its old name, PC Expo. Companies frequently take advantage of this large annual tradeshow to introduce their new products and make other announcements. This year will be no different as PalmSource, Palm, Sony, and Handspring are all expected to use TechXNY to get out the word about their products.

Wireless networking promises to free handhelds from being chained to the network by cables. However, that won't be enough for complete liberation; even handhelds with wireless networking will still need to be plugged in occasionally to recharge their batteries. A startup named MobileWise says it has developed a way to wirelessly recharge a handheld or laptop.

Samsung is demonstrating a new smartphone at CommunicAsia2002 in Singapore and some facts about it have begun to appear on the Web, though the information is, as yet, incomplete. The device, called the Bluechip, has a clamshell shape. It has a color screen and hardware buttons on one side and the Graffiti area, rocker switch, and telephone dial pad on the other. It runs Palm OS 4.1. It is not yet known when this device will be available or at what price.

SonyStyle Hong Kong has begun taking pre-orders for the PEG-T665C/H which is the Hong Kong version of the T650C, which it released in Japan earlier this month. The preorder period is June 21 to July 4. The price is HK$3280 (around US$420). -Joseph So and William Chang

SonyStyle Japan has launched My Clié, My Style! to let users share their experiences with their handhelds. There is also a questionnaire to get feedback for the next generation Clié. -Eugene

NetFront 3.0 will be the default web browser in Palm OS 5.0, according to eWeek. PalmSource has not confirmed this.

NetFront isn't currently available as a stand-alone Palm application. Instead, it has been designed to run on all types of embedded systems, from mobile phones to TV set top boxes. It supports a laundry list of web standards.

Chapura has announced that it will soon release KeyContacts, an alternative to the standard Palm OS Address Book which gives Microsoft Outlook users a way to manage virtually all of their detailed contact information, including access to important Outlook fields, categories, and folders on their handheld. KeyContacts will be available on June 25 for $25.

Handmark has released Scrabble 1.1, which adds a full definition dictionary plus hi-res and Bluetooth support. It costs $10 to upgrade. Monopoly 1.1 is also available which adds support for hi-res and Bluetooth. This one is a free upgrade. -Dennis and Biff K

Brochu Software has released SkinManager for the Sony NR series. It lets users install skins in RAM via a simple HotSync, shows a preview of each skin before it is installed, allows renaming and deleting skins, and allows users to install both Graffiti and Status skins at the same time. SkinManager is $5. -PR

DataViz has released a version of Sheet To Go that supports the 320 by 320 screens on some Sony handhelds. It is a free upgrade for registered users. The hi-res version allows the user to view spreadsheets at regular size or zoom out to get a wider view of the sheet. The company hasn't released a version of Word To Go that does the same thing.

The Bluetooth Special Interest Group is working on a couple of new versions of the wireless networking standard which will feature faster access. In the near term, the SIG is working on Bluetooth 1.2, which will offer communication rates of 2 Mbps to 3 Mbps. Longer term, it is also working on Bluetooth 2.0, which will have rates of 4, 8 and 12 Mbps. The current version, Bluetooth 1.1, is limited to 1 Mbps. Bluetooth 2.0 may not be available until 2004.