In Decmber, Palm introduced a hardcase for the m500 series that some had been waiting for since spring. It is an aluminum case with a very stylish look. The front cover, which opens to the side like a book, can swivel all the way around to the back. Inside is padding to protect the handheld and a rail to hold it in. There is also a slot to hold business cards. First-time reviewer Kezza has this look.

About a month ago, a beta of the Palm Desktop for Apple's OS X was released. While an important step for Mac users, the only conduits available were for the built-in applications, like the Date Book, Address Book, etc. It is now up to developers to create conduits for their own apps. Happily, this process has begun. Full desktop versions of the SplashWallet apps for OS X have been released and there is a beta of a Quicken conduit available, too.

Coola, the company that developed a service to allow people to share and transfer information from the web to various Palm applications, has ceased operations. The following notice was posted on their website over the weekend...

CompUSA has lowered their price on the new Sony T615C to $380. -Ravi
UPDATE: CompUSA has brought their price back up to $399, no reason for the change was given. -Ryan

A revised version of Palm Programming: The Authoritative Solution is being written by Glenn Bachmann. It will include guidance on creating Palm apps that use OS 5, as well as expansion memory card, color, and high resolution display support. The new edition is expected to be available at bookstores by later this summer. -Dan Reuvers

The week began with the official release of the Palm i705, which several companies have useful services coming for. Palm also released a software update to improve the SD/MMC slot.

In other hardware news, HandEra talked about future color QVGA screens and there were more rumors about the m515 and m130

Red Mercury has released AcidImage 1.0, an image viewer that allows users to view JPEG, GIF and BMP images directly from an SD/MMC card or Memory Stick. It can also display images in PictureGear Pocket or MGI PhotoSuite formats from RAM or expansion card. It supports normal and high-resolution screens up to 16-bit color. It has a slideshow mode and allows zooming and reducing of images. AcidImage 1.0 is available now for $10.

Since the wireless Palm i705 was announced early this week, companies have been announcing services to enhance the experience. Email and other information dictated to Copytalk will be wirelessly sent to the handheld using its push capabilities. PrinterOn will allow an i705 to wirelessly view, fax, and print documents over the Internet. Switchboard will allow users to access yellow pages entries from almost anywhere.

Yesterday, Handspring released the Treo line in Singapore. Both the 180 and 180g are available for SD 970 with a two year service contract. SingTel will be providing the wireless service and selling the devices. This follows on the heels of the Treo's release in Hong Kong earlier this week, selling for HKD 4380. Wireless service for the Treo in Hong Kong is being provided by PacRim Technologies.

Of course, the Treo will soon be available in many more countries. This will be made much easier by an agreement announced this week to localize the product line into 15 European languages

While Palm continued its domination of U.S. retail sales in 2001, its lead wasn't as wide as in previous years, according to a report from NPD Techworld. During all of last year, Palm accounted for 58% of handhelds sold. In 2000, that number was 71%. It was a bad year for Palm, with a springtime sales slump caused by the poorly-handled rollout of the m500 series. Nevertheless, the company still sold 2.84 million handhelds, an increase of about 300 thousand over the previous year.

Palm's loss was everyone else's gain. The rest of the top five all gained at least a bit. For example, Handspring's share of the market was 15%, up just 1%, for a total of 735 thousand units.

Dabs.com in the U.K. is now taking pre-orders for the Sony T625C. The price is £316.07, or £269 without VAT. Availability is advertised as 3-4 weeks. -Gordon Jones

Last week, the "auto shut off" fix for Sony's T series was incorrectly described as being for an infrared-related problem. According to a Sony engineer, it is actually a fix for a rare issue where the Clié is not able to power off after a hard reset. This goes for both automatically shutting off and manually pressing the power button. To get the patch, go to Sony's Support page then click on "Updates" for the specific model. -Ed

Vaja Cases recently debuted a line of leather cases specifically designed for Sony handhelds, including the N and S series. This includes cases specifically designed for the various Sony models, like different versions for the N610C and N760C. First-time reviewer Rod Dunn has a look at the version for the N610C.