Shanghai has been phenomenally successful as a computer game going back to the 80s. Many players find it as addictive as Solitaire. There have been versions of it available for the Palm OS for years but LandWare recently released a very professional Palm version based on the one from Activision . Pepper brings us this review.

p.s. Games make good gifts!

Win-Hand is application that allows users to remotely control a PC from a handheld over the Internet. An image of the display from the remote computer is highly compressed and transferred to the handheld. On-screen keyboards allow for easy text entry and for entering key combinations, like Ctrl-Alt-Del. The developer claims Win-Hand is significantly faster than PalmVNC. A free demo is available now and the final version will be available December 3. Pricing has not yet been set.

OfficeMax is offering Gift Cards of various amounts with a handheld purchase. The m100 is just $75 after a $25 Gift Card. They also offer a $40 Gift Card with a m500 or a Visor Edge. Offer good through December 1. -Mike Cane

Costco is selling the Palm IIIc for $200. That's lower than the refurbished IIIc on Palm's Web page. Costco membership necessary to get this price. -Anon

In a classic example of taking medicine with a spoonful of sugar, Palm announced today that its handhelds have been selling well and that it expects its revenues for the quarter than ends this month to be about 30% higher than the last one, and, oh yeah, it is reducing its headcount by about 250 employees.

The stock market reacted positively to the news, pushing the share price up 6% in after hours trading.

Sony has cut the price of the PEG-N610C by $50 to $350. This applies to both versions of the model, which are really just two different casing colors. The new price for the N610C has already gone into effect.

It didn't publicize the change but it isn't Sony's company policy to publicize price cuts or give reasons for them. While it is mostly speculation, the most likely reason for this change is that Sony is planning on phasing out the N610C in favor of an U.S. version of T600C.

Navman has announced two new GPS receivers that will be out in the next few weeks. The GPS 500 uses Palm's Universal Connector and will work with the m505, m505, and m125. It runs off the handheld's own battery and will be available in January. The GPS350 works with the Palm V and III series. It has its own Lithium Polymer rechargeable battery that is good for over three hours of continuous use. It should be out in mid-December. Each of these will cost $200.

Targus Inc. has officially announced the HandCam digital camera Springboard module that it was showing off at Comdex a few weeks ago. It acts as both a still camera and a webcam. It can take pictures at 640 by 480 and 24-bit color. It has 2 MB of on-board memory and weighs just 1.4 ounces. It will be available later this week for $100 from Targus and other retailers and webstores.

The new InStep Print 2.1 supports Quickoffice 5.6. It allows users to wirelessly print spreadsheets and documents directly from their handheld computers to any printer equipped to accept infrared input. -Kevin Doel

A publicly available downloadable demo of 3D Star Fighter Pilot is now available. The game itself is in final beta testing. -Alan

Sony is offering some nice add-ons to those who purchase handhelds from their N and T series during this holiday season. Countering Palm's offer of a free 16 MB SD card, Sony is offering a free 32 MB Memory Stick for those who buy a N or T series Clié. It is also offering a leather case to N series buyers. These deals are good through January 9.

The latest weekly figures from NPD Intellect show that unit sales of handhelds are up 20% from the previous week's and up more than 30% from the same week last year. This a sign that the whole sector may be looking at a good holiday shopping season, which it very much needs.

Though some might point out that a single week's change doesn't make a trend, the news was enough to drive up shares of both Palm and Handspring over the last couple of trading sessions.

Long time readers will remember that when Palm started up the MyPalm portal, it summarily ordered Dominic Hulewicz, the current user of the MyPalm.com domain, to give it up. Mr. Hulewicz didn't give up without a fight and he took his case to the court of public opinion. After generating much bad press, Palm decided on a compromise. Mr. Hulewicz was allowed to continue to use the domain name in his email address but the web address was redirected to Palm's portal. With the news that the MyPalm portal will be shutting down in just over a month, Mr. Hulewicz's MyPalm.com website has returned.