Handheld computers are great because they free their user from being tied to a wall with wires. A handheld can be used almost anywhere. And with wireless networking on the horizon, soon it might no longer be necessary for a handheld to ever physically connect to a computer at all. But there is one area that still inevitably and frequently brings many handhelds back into contact with a wire: power. While low- and some mid-range handhelds run off AAAs, most high-end handhelds are rechargeable and need to be plugged into a wall socket fairly frequently.

Perhaps the biggest news of the week was what didn't happen: none of the new handhelds that were expected to be announced at the Consumer Electronics Show actually were. The T615C was announced, just not in the U.S. Palm and Sony did release some hints on their new models, though.

Palm Inc. and Sony are expected to be releasing new handhelds soon. Both are releasing hints about these, some deliberate, some accidental.

According to an anonymous source inside the company, Palm will be sending out an email on Monday to its list of customers that seems designed to create some buzz. It says simply, "All we can say is that the newest Palm handheld is coming. Very soon. Stay tuned for more details."

Anyone who is bored with the look of their m505 or Palm V should consider getting a PDA Jacket. This is a thin film that fits around the outside of the casing that changes the appearance. They are available for the front, the back, or both. There is also a version for the leather flip cover that comes with the m505. Front and back skins cost $8 with specialty colors $3 more. The flip-cover version is $6 and a name or message is $3 more.

Motient, maker of the wireless MobileModem that was announced earlier this week, has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a deal with its creditors, according to Cnet. This should not affect their wireless service. -Ed

Textual has released a beta of anagram for Microsoft Outlook. It imports text from anywhere on the computer screen into the Outlook Contact List or Calendar, formatting the new item properly with each element in the correct field. -Nicholas Maddix

Sony has dropped the official price of the PEG-T415 by $50 to $250. As always, Sony gave no reasons for this and has a company policy to never call attention to price cuts.

This is an unusually quick price drop; the T415 only began shipping from SonyStyle in late November. This may not a good sign. When a company drops the price this soon on a handheld, its frequently because sales are weak and the company may be hoping to spur demand.

The Universal Bridge is a pair of new adapters that allow Palm models with the Universal Connector to use V or III series peripherals. This helps solve one one the most frequent complaints from handheld users, that they have to replace replace all their old peripherals whenever they upgrade. Robert Zach has this review.

InStep Fax has been available for some time as a technology demo and has recently been released by the InStep Group. It's an add-on for InStep Print and allows the user to fax anything from WordSmith, Quickword, and Documents to Go and can fax a cover sheet designed in any of these programs. While it can send, it can't receive faxes. It supports the PalmModem and most mobile phones, among others. It costs $20 and requires InStep Print, which is $30.

Confirming yesterday's rumor, Sony is taking preorders for the PEG-T615C/G in Hong Kong and Singapore. The T615C has essentially the same specs as T600C, except T615C has 4 MB of Flash ROM instead of 8 MB. The delivery date isn't until after January 21. They will not ship outside of their own territory.

An inventor is challenging Microsoft for the rights to the name "Pocket PC", saying that he has a common-law trademark on it because he's been selling a novelty gag with that name since the 80s. He's suing the software giant in small claims court. -ww

Paragon Software has released AnotherBall, a Palm OS remake of famous IBM PC Arkanoid. It offer the classic game with lots of bonuses and levels. It has both color and monochrome versions. -PR

Broadcom Corp. and Palm Inc. have announced that they will work together to develop an advanced Bluetooth architecture for use in a next-generation Palm handheld. This will be based on Broadcom's Blutonium line of transceivers. Specifically, it will be designed around the Broadcom BCM2033, which is a single chip solution optimized for use in handheld computers.