Sales of all types of handhelds have dropped during the second quarter of this year in Europe, according to the research company Gartner Dataquest. This mirrors a similar drop in handheld sales in the United States. Still, sales did increase 7% over the same quarter last year.

The news was especially bad for Palm. Basically, what seems to have happened is that sales of Palm branded units dropped by about half while customers where waiting for the m500 series, which Palm pre-announced. They still hold the lead but with only a narrow margin.

Atom Smash 2.0 beta testing will begin in the next few days. All beta testers will be given a free unlock code for Atom Smash at the end of the beta period. Due to a limited number spots spots, better sign up before this weekend. -Scott

Global Star will be launching five new games for the Palm platform that will be available this holiday season: Serious Sam, Grand Theft Auto, Action Bass, Austin Powers Pinball, and Jetfighter. -Ari Haviv

Novatel Wireless has begun shipping the Minstrel m500 CDPD Wireless Handheld Modem. It uses CDPD networks and is capable of transmitting data at up to 19.2 kbps. It has a suggested price of $370.

Update: According to a company spokesperson, OmniSky should begin officially supporting this modem sometime in August. She said, "We have primarily been waiting for the availability of modems from Novatel. While they have announced availability, I'm not sure what volume we require to launch and when they'll be able to meet that volume."

Since the release of the N710C, the flagship of Sony's Clié line of handhelds, readers have been asking for a review. News Editor Ed Hardy has been been using one for several weeks and brings us this in-depth look.

iambic has created a monochrome version of its arcade-style game, Ababall Grayscale. The company has redesigned the graphics, adjusted the frames per second rate, and removed the backgrounds. A contrast dial was also added. It is available now for $12. -Ryan

A set of instructions is available to modify the cradle supplied with the m500 series so that it can be used both with the USB and serial ports on a PC. -Stefanos Dris

Yesterday, Palm announced that Intel, Motorola, and Texas Instruments would be joining its new Palm OS Ready Program, which meant that they would all be making ARM-based processors capable of running the next generation of the Palm operating system. Palm's initial announcement on the program was short on details and since it came out there have been conflicting reports being written about it. The greatest area of contention was that some publications said that portions of the OS would be embedded into the chips and some said there wouldn't be. Palm has posted a FAQ on its developer's website that clears up much of the confusion.

NS BASIC Corporation has released NS Basic/Palm 2.0. The new version of this development platform features an improved IDE as well as multiple code windows, quicker development, and a standard properties dialog. There are also numerous usability improvements. It is on sale now for $100.

The show Fresh Gear on TechTV over the weekend had a story about the new OLED display technology that will bring brighter, thinner, easier to read displays that use less power and have a 170 degree visible angle. As part of the story, they had a number of prototype Palms hooked up with a monochrome version of these screens. -Mike Wells

Audible.com has released a Springboard that allows users to listen to audio books with their Visor. The Audible Advisor has 16MB internal flash memory which means it can hold up to 4.5 hours of content. It has an audio jack for the included pair of ear buds. It sells for $130 alone or $50 when signing up for an Audible Listener subscription.

Palm, Inc. has announced that key suppliers of ARM core-based technology have joined its new Palm OS Ready Program. Intel and Motorola will produce reference designs, and Texas Instruments (TI) will develop a wireless processing platform that is optimized for the Palm OS.

Intel will provide StrongARM and XScale Palm OS Ready solutions while Motorola will provide DragonBall MX1 Palm OS Ready solutions. The "Palm OS Ready" in their names means all of these microprocessors, no matter who makes them, will be able to run the next generation of the Palm OS.

Landware's Shanghai Pocket Essentials is a modern, solitaire version of the ancient, oriental game, based on Activision's Shanghai Mah-Jongg series. Built on a custom engine using standard Activision graphics and layouts, it is available now for $20. -David Porfido

IBM is offering a free tutorial for those who want to get an overview of Web clipping application development. It covers what tools are necessary, provides an overview of the syntax, and looks at sample programs. -Frank

Palm is going to announce tomorrow its plans to work with Intel, Motorola, Texas Instruments, and ARM Holdings to transition the Palm OS to microprocessors with ARM technology, according to Cnet. All three chip companies are all expected to use Palm's software developer kit to create processors capable of running the Palm OS.