During a conference call today, Handspring CEO Donna Dubinsky said for the first time that her company will eventually stop making Visors and only make Treos. She said, "We are a company that is transitioning out of the organizer business and into the communicator business. At some point we will have transitioned out of the organizer business." Ms. Dubinsky didn't say when this switchover might take place.

In a conference call after announcing its most recent quarterly results, Handspring's CEO Donna Dubinsky revealed that the release of the Treo has been delayed by parts shortages. The Treo is being manufactured but in smaller numbers than the company wants.

Handspring has decided to send the majority of Treo handhelds that do get produced this month to Europe. The Treo line uses the GSM wireless standard which is far more prevalent in Europe than in the U.S.

Handspring has just reported financial results for its most recent quarter, which ended Dec. 29. The company reported revenues of $70.5 million. This is a 15% increase from the previous quarter but down almost 40% from the same quarter a year ago. Handspring had a net loss of $19.8 million, or 16 cents a share, compared to a loss of $15.2 million, or 15 cents per share, a year ago.

Palm Inc. has released detailed financial information from its last quarter and it shows that the company, despite running in the red, is keeping its priorities in the right places. It's research and development budget did drop a bit but it was only 8% less than the same quarter the previous year and 8.5% less than the prior quarter. While any decrease in R&D spending in a technology company isn't good, an 8% drop is fairly minimal considering Palm's revenues were down 44% compared to the same quarter the previous year.

Ending months of rumors and speculation, Sony is announcing two new additions to its line of handhelds today: the PEG-T615C and the PEG-S360. The star is sure to be the T615C, with its 320 by 320 pixel, TFT 16-bit color display and 16 MB of RAM. Despite this official announcement, Sony still has not specified an exact release date, only saying that it will be available later this month for $400.

The S360 has a 160 by 160 monochrome screen but also sports 16 MB of RAM. It will be available in February for $200.

Sony will soon be taking pre-orders for both these models on its website.

mm02 Plc, the British mobile phone group, has agreed to distribute and market Handspring's Treo line of smartphones in Europe. Perhaps it's fitting that the first official announcement from a wireless service provider that it will support the Treo comes from Europe, as the first Treo models use the GSM wireless standard, which is far more prevalent there than in the U.S., Handspring's home country. No availability date was given. The two said only that they would be working together this quarter on the project.

myOstrich Internet, in celebration of their website's Grand Opening, is giving away five Palm m125 Handhelds, one a month through June. No purchase is necessary to enter.-Tim Hewitt

PalmPilotUpgrade.com is now buying old or broken Palm III and Palm V series handhelds for parts. Contact them via email. -Tony Rudenko

A few weeks ago, a review in the New York Times said the Handspring Treo line would be available on January 14. Well, it's January 14 and there's still no sign of either of the new wireless models. A PIC reader who called the company and tried to order a Treo was told to check back on January 21. Handspring representatives were unavailable for comment. In the past, the company has only said that the Treo would be available this month.

Blue Nomad has released the first update to BackupBuddy in over a year. With version 1.5, it can backup the entire contents of VFS expansion cards during each HotSync, in addition to its regular function of backing up the handheld's internal memory. It also includes a copy of BackupBuddyVFS, which allows the handheld's internal memory to be backed up to a memory card. It's a free upgrade or $30 for new users.

Palm, Inc. introduced early this morning a beta version of its Bluetooth Software Developer Kit (SDK). This will help developers to create applications that use this short-range wireless standard. The SDK has recieved approval from the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) as being compliant with the Bluetooth 1.1 specification. Palm also announced it is working with top Bluetooth hardware manufacturers, including Red-M, Northstar Systems and TDK Systems, to provide compatible hardware development kits.

TWPDA can now upgrade the RAM from 8 MB to 16 MB on Sony's entire N series for $80 plus $20 shipping. They also do the same thing for the m500 series. -nxt

Fry's electronics is advertising in their weekly flyer that refurbished Visor Prisms are on sale for $200. -Brian