Palm Inc. said today that it expects revenue for its current financial quarter to be roughly half what it had previously expected. The company estimates revenue will be between $140 and $160 million, compared to its previous estimation of $300 to $315 million. This means the company is now expecting to lose between $170 and $190 million this quarter, compared to the $80 to $85 million it had previously thought. Inventory problems also mean Palm will take a $300 million charge.

This announcement came after the major markets had closed. Shares fell to an all-time low of $5.47 on very heavy volume in after-hours trading.

Palm and Extended Systems announced today that they have mutually and amicably agreed to terminate their proposed deal for Palm to acquire the mobile infrastructure developer. A proposed acquisition was announced March 6 and was expected to close in June. They cited "the slowing economy and market conditions" as their reasons for cancelling the deal. There will be no termination fee.

Palm was buying Extended Systems with stock but Palm's stock price has collapsed since the deal was first announced.

Research In Motion, maker of the Blackberry, has won a patent to protect its method of directing e-mail to wireless devices, which could force Palm Inc. to license its technology. RIM said U.S. Patent No. 6,219,694 lets it claim ownership over its Single Mailbox Integration technology. This lets a user have a single e-mail address for both its desktop computer and mobile device, with the PC forwarding messages on to the device as needed.

HandEra has released an upgrade that will move all TRGpro devices to Palm OS 3.5.2. Among the most noticeable improvements is an approximate 10% speed increase in CompactFlash (CF) memory card operations. It contains drivers for several new CF devices, including Ethernet cards. It also has several other small enhancements and bug fixes. It is free but only works on HandEra/TRGpro handhelds.

MaGlobe, which offers a global Internet access service for travelers, has released AutoDialer for PalmOS. It allows users to automatically access the Web from over 5 thousand locations worldwide. For example, instead of being in Europe and forced to dial over the Atlantic to access an ISP, MaGlobe allows the user to dial into a local access number. MaGlobe only needs to hear a dial tone and the software will autodial the local number for the city the traveler is in.

Franklin Covey is now selling Handspring Visor handhelds and Springboard modules through its retail, catalog, and e-commerce sales channels.

Apple will be selling Palm's latests handhelds in its new retail stores, the first of which is opening in Washington, DC on Saturday.

When Palm first announced the m500 series, they said IBM would soon be offering versions of the same devices. The WorkPad c500 and c505 have now appeared on the IBM webstore. These are essentially the same as the Palm models except they have black housings instead of Palm's metallic silver. They sell for the same prices the m500 series do: $400 and $450 respectively.

Cutting Edge Software and DDH Software have teamed to launch Quickdata, a free utility that lets users share data between Quicksheet spreadsheets and HanDBase relational databases.

"Just as Microsoft's Access and Excel have provided workers with flexibility when they work with their data on the desktop, the teaming of HanDBase and Quicksheet empowers mobile professionals with more choices in how they work with data on their handheld computers," said Michael Compeau, Cutting Edge Software's vice president of business development and planning.

Palm, Inc. has announced that the 10 thousandth Palm OS application has been released, and this doesn't even include eBook titles. An average of 500 new software products for the Palm platform are being released by developers every month.

Palm also announced the launch of Palm handhelds in India. The m100, m105 IIIc, and Vx handhelds will be available throughout the subcontinent at the end of May. Palm is considering moving into Korea and China.

The supposed m505 contrast system hack that was published a week or so ago is simply a well done hoax. None of the various sets of instructions for performing the hack actually do anything.

The hoax has moved on to a new form and sites are starting to claim that they have applications that will do the same thing. These are all fraudulent. There is an application called bright505 on both PalmGear and Handango which is simply GlowHack with a different file name.

Handspring, Inc. today released a new version of Blazer, its Web browser for the Palm OS. Blazer is designed to provide handheld computers with fast access to a full range of Web content. Handspring will bundle Blazer with the VisorPhone as part of its new Wireless Internet Access Suite, a suite of applications for wireless e-mail, web browsing and messaging. They will also be selling Blazer for $20.

At the same time, Handspring has announced a $50 drop in the price of the VisorPhone. It is now selling for of $250 with a service plan or $450 when purchased separately.