Last month, Donna Dubinsky, Handspring's CEO, said her company would be releasing a new device that is not a Visor . She said it would borrow some of the design characteristics of the Treo line but not be a wireless device. Recently, rumors have been circulating about a Treo 90, which has a built-in keyboard but no Springboard slot.

There appear to be some basis for these as CompuSmart.com, a Canadian webstore, now lists the Handspring Treo 90.

Update: The Treo 90 has been removed from CompuSmart's webstore. However, a screenshot of what was there is available.

Since Sony introduced the NR series, many developers have announced that they will offer versions of their applications that support the 320 by 480 screen with virtual Graffiti.

The latest to do so is Red-Mercury with AcidImage 1.2, which also supports the HandEra 330 hi-res screen and regular monochrome screens, too. AcidImage can view images taken with the NR70V's built-in camera and has other new features. It is $12.

InnoPocket has released the Metal Deluxe Case for Palm m1xx, an aluminium hardcase for the Palm m100 series but not the m130. It is made of annodized aluminium and has cut-outs to allow access to the infrared port and stylus slot. It is lined with Neoprene to provide some cushoning in case it gets dropped. It is available now for $30.

Mazingo has a Palm OS version in beta of its service that delivers video, audio, and text to handheld users. PDA Avenue has an interview with Bill Dettering, Mazingo's CTO. -Marcus Bankuti

STNE Corp. has reduced the prices on its memory upgrades. All 8 MB upgrades cost between $56 to $80, and all 16 MB upgrades are from $95 to $110. -Will

SonyStyle Japan now lists the T600C and T400 as discontinued. These are the Japanese versions of the T615C and T415. The T615C is still listed on the U.S. version of SonyStyle but the T415 was dropped some time ago. What Sony does in Japan is usually soon carried through in other countries so it seems likely that the T615C will also soon be discontinued. It was first announced in January.

ILINX, Inc. has announced that an English version of Xiino will be available June 1. This is a web browser that has been available in Japanese for a long time. Many users have been eagerly awaiting its release in English because it offers Javascript support. It also supports 128-bit SSL encryption, color, tables, cookies, and frames. Xiino will cost $25.

The primary feature of any handheld should be how easy it is to carry around. However, a handheld with a dead battery isn't useful to anyone and lugging its cradle along on a trip just to keep it charged isn't the most convenient thing in the world. Sony has released the PEGA-BC10, a battery adapter that can charge up either a NR series or T series handheld almost anywhere.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has posted information on Handspring's soon to be released color version of its smartphone, the Treo 270. As expected, it is essentially a Treo 180, except with a color screen. The only version mentioned on the FCC site has a keyboard and no Graffiti area; there is nothing about one that uses Graffiti.

Sony Style UK is starting to promote the NR70V. You can pre-order now with a shipping date presented as "beginning of June". -Mark McLaughlin

The Palm Pays Back program has been extended another 30 days, until June 19. -PR

Steuart Dewar, head of Pimlico Software, has circulated an email stating that he has accepted the apology from Vidal Graupera, CEO of iambic, for his company's recent actions and would like the Palm community to do the same. After offering thanks for all the efforts on his behalf, Mr. Dewar said, "I think we should consider that reason and ethics prevailed and that the final resolution is satisfactory enough for us to move on and get back to the issues at hand." He went on to say that he would be dismayed to see any kind of illegal or unethical attacks made against iambic because of this issue.

According to several market research firms, the Palm OS leads the handheld market in several important categories. An obvious one is retail sales. Though Palm has long led the this category, according to NPDTechworld, the Palm OS now has 87.2% of the U.S. retail market, growing 10 percentage points in the last two months. However, this isn't the only category where it is well ahead of the competition; the Palm OS also leads in worldwide enterprise sales and smartphone shipments.