Visor Central has learned that Hagiwara Sys-Com is working on the Beat Plus Springboard, which offers greatly improved sound compared to the minimal speaker built into the Visor. It will come with an alarm clock app and registered versions of Zap! 2000 and Zap! 2016. These will be special versions with 8-bit .wav effects and some multi-channel MIDI music.

Gethightech, Inc. an independent parts and service provider, purchases used handhelds of all types. For example, they'll pay $90 for a Palm Vx or $70 for a Visor Platinum w/cradle.

Mark/Space has changed the name of the Clié Mac Pack to The Missing Sync. This $30 app allows Macintosh users to HotSync with the Sony Clié.

Think Outside Inc. today has announced availability of the Stowaway Portable Keyboard for the Sony Clié. It supports both the PEG-S300 monochrome and the new PEG-N710C color version and is available in English and Japanese versions. Targus Group International is the exclusive worldwide distributor of this version of the Stowaway. Available under the name Targus Stowaway Portable Keyboard for Sony Clié, it has a suggested retail price of US $99.

PTN Media and Michael Jordan have just announced the Michael Jordan editions of the Palm m100 and m500 that will be sold online and in selected stores. The Palm m100 ($159) comes with a black faceplate and flip cover with the Jordan name in silver on the front. The Palm m500 ($425) has the Jordan logo on the top left-hand corner.

As yet another sign of Palm Inc.'s current problems, Gartner has released a report predicting that Compaq will soon show a higher quarterly revenue than Palm Inc. This doesn't mean that more iPaqs will be sold than Palm models, simply that Compaq will have a greater cash flow from its sales.

SplashData has released SplashMoney 2.0, its personal finance manager. It adds support for additional account types, an option to display running balance, more support for international users, UI enhancements and more. The free update is available for both Windows and Macintosh. -John Chaffee

Visor Central is reporting that MatchBook Products has reduced the price for the MD-001to $15 and the MD-100 to $20. Both are CompactFlash adapters for the Visor.

The San Francisco Giants and Palm, Inc. have installed three beaming stations at Pacific Bell Park. Handheld users can now keep score and track the game more closely than ever before when they visit a beaming station and get a scoring application and the latest Giants and visiting team statistics and roster for their Palm Powered handhelds.

Hot on the heels of my last review of the InnoPocket FlashAdapter comes the InnoPocket FlashPLUS review. InnoPocket did it, they answered my "major gripe"! InnoPocket bested their first offering and addressed the concerns on the basic FlashAdapter. The plus can now truly be called a SpringBoard module - it's Plug 'N' Play!

Sony has released a system update for the PEG-N710C. This will update the Jog Dial functionality and Audio Player software that shipped with the handheld.

According to data from market researcher NPD Intelect, Sony's Memory Stick is starting to make make progress in the flash memory market. A year ago, the MemStick has just 7% of the market but now it has 25%.

Last year, CompactFlash had the lion's share of the market with 51% and Smart Media was a close second with 41%. But the MemStick has cut into both of these. Now, CompactFlash has 40% and Smart Media has 32%.

The SD card is still so new it barely made a ripple on this year's figures. This is expected to change as more devices ship with SD slots.

Combiner is a file compressor for Palm OS files and applications that probably hasn't gotten the attention it deserves. Users can compress multiple files into a single self-extracting PRC file saving 50% and more memory space.

Envi.con has just released Combiner for Windows, which allows users to compress Palm files on the desktop before copying them onto the handheld.