Certainly the big news of the week was the official announcement of the Handspring Treo 180 and 180g, which will eventually have always-on email. The company also announced their most recent financial results. Acer announced the s10 for the Chinese market. Palm gave some details on their OS subsidiary and started a hardware upgrade program. Sony dropped the price of the S320 by $30 and there's a webstore with Clié peripherals from Japan.

In software news, CodeWarrior 8 was released and SyncWizard allows easier access to expansion cards.

A Palm rep brought a prototype model of the Handspring Treo 180 to this week's SacPUG meeting. Check out the pictures for size comparisons with the m100 and HandEra 330. -TypeMRT and aaron w

Fictionwise is now releasing monthly eBook versions of Strange Horizons, a popular small press science fiction and fantasy magazine. The August 2001 issue is now online for free. It contains original fiction, poetry, interviews and nonfiction articles related to science fiction and fantasy. -Scott Pendergrast

When Sony released the N760C, it ran Palm OS 4.1, the first model to do so. Many people wondered what were the differences between OS 4.0 and 4.1. A Sony spokesperson said the only changes were to fix some bugs and there were no new features. Recently, a list of bug fixes was posted on the Palm Developer's Forum. For the most part, these are quite technical and none of the bugs fixed appear to be major problems with the OS.

A frequently aired complaint is that while there are a limited number of peripherals for the Sony Clié available in the U.S. and other countries, there are far more available in Japan. A webstore named ArcBrain has stepped in to help relieve this problem. They will ship many Clié-related products to the U.S. that until now weren't available. The most interesting of these is the clip-on Bluetooth module, which they have for about $150. Update: The Bluetooth module does not work with U.S. versions of the Clié.

Envi.con has released SyncWizard, which allows users to access files in RAM and the contents of an SD or MMC card on the Windows Desktop like they were a folder or a drive. With the handheld in its cradle, files can be moved between the PC and the handheld via drag-and-drop. It is similar to the paired apps that ship with current versions of the Sony N series and is available now for $30.

Acer has unveiled a Palm OS handheld for the Chinese market. The Acer s10 has a monochrome 160 by 160 screen, 16 MB of RAM, and runs a Chinese version of Palm OS 4.1. It also includes MP3 playback and has a built-in voice recorder. Acer is a Memory Stick licensee so it includes a Memory Stick slot. The price is NT$12,900 or about US$375.

When Sprint announced a combo wireless phone and modem called the Digital Link, it said the Springboard module would be available in September. It has recently appeared on the Sprint webstore with the note "temporarily out of stock". When it is finally available, it will cost $250. It provides 7 hours of talk time and 300 hours of standby time and weighs 3.4 ounces.

Dell is no longer selling the Clié N760C. It's not in their webstore and Customer Service confirms they don't sell it anymore, though they still seem to have the 610. -Anon

CASLpro is now available as a free trial. The demo version of the development environment has full capabilities, except it limits the number of variables (40), objects (20), and functions (20) a program can have. -PR

Handspring has just announced the results for its most recent quarter, which ended in September. In it, the first quarter of its 2002 fiscal year, the company's revenues were lower than expected but so were its losses. Revenues were at $61.4 million, a slight increase over the $61.0 in the previous quarter. Analysts had predicted sales of $67 million. While Handspring lost $26.2 million which works out to be 22 cents per share, analysts had predicted that the company would lose 26 cents a share.

Motient Corporation, the owner of the country's largest two-way wireless data network, today unveiled the MobileModem, which gives Palm V series handhelds always-on wireless email access. It is scheduled to be available later this Fall. Motient now says this modem will cost $180 after a rebate, which is less than half its previously reported cost.

Metrowerks has begun shipping CodeWarrior for Palm OS platform, Version 8.0. New features in this version include project wizards that automate the creation of new applications, an enhanced C++ compiler, support for USB device debugging and completely integrated Palm OS API documentation. It also offers increased support for Springboard module development and much more. It is compatible with both Windows and Macintosh.