Regular readers may remember that Palm accidentally posted a picture of the m500 on its site several days before the official launch. Palm may once again made this type of slip-up by posting on its webstore an ad for the BattPac, a portable recharger that isn't yet available. The device appears to clip on the the bottom of the handheld like a sled. Interestingly, the Palm in the ad is a V series, not the just released m500 series.

Pine Tree Software has released Torpedo, the first Web page editing application that allows users to create HTML files, preview them on the handheld, then FTP them directly to a Web server. Torpedo’s drop-down menus and wizards guide users through coding of HTML tags including font formatting, applets, image linking, hyperlinks, Javascript, and more. It comes bundled with iLinx’s Palmscape Web browser for previewing the pages, LFTP for uploading the files, and CSpotRun, to read the on-Palm documentation. Torpedo is available for $12.50.

Blue Nomad has released BackupBuddyVFS, which is designed to work with Palms that have external storage options that support the Virtual File System, such as the Palm m500 and m505 and the Sony Clié. It lets users backup their handheld’s contents to and restore from the SD and MMC expansion cards and Memory Sticks. It costs $5 and a free, limited function version called BackupBuddyVFS:Free is available, too. The full version will also be included with BackupBuddy.

iambic, Inc. has acquired MegaDoc, the word processing software, from Megasoft2000. iambic, developer of many Palm apps like Action Names Datebook, and TinySheet will soon introduce a new word processor based on MegaDoc. The estimated release date is the end of June. All registered owners of MegaDoc will receive a free upgrade. During the transition, MegaDoc 1.7 will remain on sale for $25 on PalmGear and Handango. -Kaerrie Simons

Back last fall, an artist named Tom Kemp created 1000 tiny paintings on a Palm Vx using TealPaint then arranged them in a huge grid. Twice Publishing has now produced a poster of this innovative work, called "Analysis". It is available now for £50 (approximately $75US), including VAT and postage anywhere in the world. -NT

Targus has introduced the USB Charge-Sync Cable for the Palm V series, which, when connected to a USB port, can both charge the Palm and perform a HotSync. It transfers data at up to 12Mbps and offers a HotSync button and an LED to indicate power, transmit, and receive. Supporting Palm OS 3.1 and greater, the cable is compatible with Windows 98, ME and 2000. It costs $50.

Some readers have reported that despite being promised an m505 today, Staples stores have changed their story to having the m505 in a week or so. However, they did get the m500 in today. Many Office Depot stores also have the m500 in stock.

There is at least one online store that has the m505 in stock and shipping. eDigitalStop.com swears they have them in their warehouse and will ship within 48 hours.

Update: eDigitalStop.com has now taken orders for all thirty m505s they had. They are still taking orders on a backorder basis.

If anyone hears of a store, online or bricks-and-mortar, that gets the m505 in, please let the rest of us know. -Ed

AvantGo, Inc. has reported record revenues for its most recent fiscal quarter. Revenues were $7.3 million, a 340% increase over revenues for the same quarter last year, and an 11% increase over last quarter's. The company continued on its path to profitability by narrowing its operating losses for the second straight quarter. The net loss, before non-cash charges, was $9.0 million versus $10.6 million last quarter.

In order to cut costs, AvantGo is reducing its staff by about 50 people, or 15%. These are the first job cuts the company has made, and CEO Richard Owen said "It's a fairly modest amount. We see it as a tilt of the rudder, rather than a really major event."

Spencer F. Katt, ZDnet's frequently incomprehensible rumormonger, is repeating a rumor that Sony may be considering buying out Palm, even offering more than twice its current stock value. Palm took steps last Fall to protect itself from a hostile takeover.

Dave Design has disassembled a brand new m500 and taken pictures. They carefully document the process, step by step, on their website. Most surprising is how small the battery is.

Now that the first rush of excitement is over with the release of the HandEra 330, it is time to take a longer look at some of its features.

The device's 240x320 pixel screen is possibly its most important new feature. Rather than simply use pixel doubling, the 330 takes the raw output an application is sending to the screen and totally reformats it using higher resolution fonts before displaying it. Applications may a require a bit of modification for this to work but it means the same app that runs on a 330 can run on a 160x160 Visor or other Palm.

In the beginning of May, IS/Complete will have a new version of IrPrint that will add printing support for several important applications. It already supports printing from HanDBase and Patient Keeper. With the May release it will have support for DataViz Documents to Go with full formatting including color, which is something that even PrintBoy does not have. Documents to Go comes pre-installed on all m500 series handhelds. IrPrint costs $25.

AppForge, Inc. has introduced an entry-level "Personal Edition" of their Visual Basic programming platform. It is specifically designed for hobbyists and contains many of the features of other AppForge Editions such as support for graphics, serial port communications, and Palm OS Extended Library calls. It requires VB 6 and sells for $70. -Ed

Pencel Corporation has launched Kinectivity Studio, a database application tool aimed at enabling delivery of corporate data on mobile devices. Applications created with Kinectivity Studio are deployed on Kinectivity, Pencel’s mobile extended relational database platform that integrates with a variety of back-end database and application software.