The Palm Infocenter has made AvantGo's Cool Channels, a list of their staff's favorites.

PalmPilotUpgrade now has the following message, "New Palm m500/m505 and IBM WorkPad c500/c505 models 16 Mb upgrade is now available." No pricing is available yet. -Justin Case

Here it is, the review I've been wanting to write since sometime last Fall. I got an m505 from Office Depot about noon today and I've been fiddling with it ever since. The result is the review you are about to read.

As Sony is a media giant, it is no surprise that their latest handheld, the PEG-N710C, has support for playing digital audio. What is a surprise is that it has built-in support for the controversial MP3 format, which is the preferred format for music piracy. Sony would rather people use its ATRAC3 format which has copyright protection. The N710C comes with applications that can play both.

Sony handled this in an unusual way. The N710C comes with a version of its Palm Audio Player and desktop app combo that plays MP3s and a completely different set that plays ATRAC3 files. Neither can play the other format.

Many Palm users are becoming increasingly frustrated and cynical as companies pass their promised delivery dates with no m505s in site. As one Palm enthusiast put it, "this whole 505 thing lies somewhere between 'sport' and 'obsession' ".

Office Depot is now taking orders for the m505 on its webstore and promising delivery within 3 days. However, the site's m505 page doesn't inspire confidence, as it is just a product name and a price.

This month's Palm Tipsheet is now online. It offers ideas for keeping handheld data protected should it be lost or stolen, and ways to prevent the worst from occurring. They also talk with German Palm handheld user Leonard Burtscher in the Tipsheet Interview. -Mike Rohde

Fictionwise.com is giving away three 2001 Hugo Award nominated stories as free eBooks. The available titles, which will be free for a limited time, are “Kaddish for the Last Survivor” by Michael A. Burstein, “The Elephants on Neptune” by Mike Resnick, and “Redchapel” by Mike Resnick. -Scott Pendergrast

Though they are a bit late to the party, Sony officially launched the new Clié today. Their announcement does make official some of the details that were only speculation before. The N710C will use Palm OS 3.5.2S running on a 33MHz Motorola Dragonball VZ processor with 8MB of memory. It has a 4MB flashable ROM. The Clié is 2.88 x 4.75 x 0.69 inches and weighs 5.7 ounces. A lithium-ion polymer battery powers it. The N710C will be available at retailers nationwide in June for $500 and can be pre-ordered beginning today at SonyStyle.

Developers' Nation is a new website for Palm OS developers. It will promote more effective and efficient code development by initially providing technical support services with a guaranteed response time and access to a searchable Knowledge Base of technical information derived from Palm's own proprietary technical archive. They charge $100 for access to the knowledge base and $75 for each technical question answered.

SplashData, Inc. today announced SplashMoney, a personal finance application that allows users to manage their finances while on the go. It is an electronic checkbook and credit card register that allows users to record transactions, track account balances, reconcile bank statements, generate cash flow analysis reports and manage finances. SplashMoney may be used stand-alone on a handheld or as a companion to desktop software such as Quicken or Microsoft Money. It is available now for $20 and a fully functional 30-day trial version is also available.

Aaron Ardiri, noted Palm OS software developer, wrote an application that was offered on Palmgear on April 22nd for several hours before being removed from the site. The app, named "HaCkMe" is a small (10K) utility that allows users to assign a specific user name for each application. For those with more than one Palm PDA this would allow having two different user names (one for each PDA) while requiring only one registration code.

Though there hasn't been an official announcement yet, Sony has posted the full details on a U.S. version of the new color Clié on its SonyStyle website. Named the PEG-N710C, it is essentially the PEG-N700C except with an English version of the Palm OS. It has a front lighted, reflective TFT color screen at 320x320 resolution and a Jog Dial. It has 8 MB of memory and comes with an 8 MB Memory Stick. It will cost $500 and will be available May 28.

Wireless Roaming
Columbitech has developed a method to allow handheld and notebook users to roam between different wireless networks during a single session. The Wireless VPN would allow, for example, a user to access the office network using a wireless local area network card, then travel home, still connected using a CDPD connection. At home, the user would then automatically switch over to a Bluetooth connection, all the time still on the same online session. A prototype was demoed at CeBit. "We're planning on developing a Palm version of the seamless roaming technology by the end of the year," the company's CEO said.