During the rush of new OS, hardware, and application announcements during PalmSource last week, some smaller announcements got overlooked. But now that things have calmed down a bit, these can get the attention they deserve.

MochaSoft, the maker of the excellent Mocha W32 PPP, has released Mocha W32 Keyboard which allows users to use a PC keyboard and mouse to enter data into a Palm or Visor that is in the cradle. A copy of the PDA's screen is shown on the Windows PC. It is $10 shareware.

Palm will report its second quarter earnings tomorrow, December 20. Analysts are predicting that the company will report a strong quarter with profits of 4 cents per share. Demand for Palms is quite high and Palm has been able to meet that demand, for the most part. Palm is currently trading at just over $46, with a 3.5% gain yesterday.

Handspring's week hasn't been so nice. Their stock fell almost 6% yesterday to $44.75 at the end of the lockup period, the 180 days during which company insiders have been restricted from selling stock after the IPO.

The Seattle Palm Users Group will be meeting on Tuesday, December 19th. Come for a complete tutorial on HandyShopper2 as well as a report on PalmSource, including pictures! They'll also have a Q&A session, and Palm Games! Refer to their Web site for location, time, directions, and more. -Greg Gaub

Come to the New England Palm User Group December meeting on Tues, Dec 19, at 6:30 pm. The topic will be Palm 101. This will be a casual meeting where they will discuss how to use your Palm OS based device and provide some tips & tricks. They also hope to have a PalmSource report. -Michael Steinberg

The VisorPhone is finally available, just time time to be too late for Christmas delivery. It is on sale now on the Handspring site for $300 when you sign up for a service plan.

In case you've missed all the hype, the VisorPhone is a Springboard module GSM cell phone. It offers conference calling, caller ID, programming, and using speed-dial numbers, detailed call history, and standard dialing functions. It can also be used for SMS (short message service) text messaging; wireless synchronization with a desktop computer; and when combined with third party software, wireless access to the Internet and e-mail applications.

It isn't too late to pick up a present for a Palm user or two in your life. One of the most popular Palm gifts is replacement styli and the stylus/pen combinations from ttools are items you should certainly look at. They are big improvements over the styli that come with your handheld at good prices, especially their SLIMpoint, which is probably the best stylus/pen combination ever.

If you are a student or run-of-the-mill Palm user, you might have thought PalmSource 2000 was about OS 4 or giving an reason for lots of companies to announce their new software all at once. But it was actually intended to increase Palm's market share among corporations.

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My name is David Kammer and I am the lead software engineer for Palm's Bluetooth Project. I wanted to clear up what I believe is a misconception based upon a quote taken out of context. As The Register has properly reported, one of the speakers at Palm Source expressed disappointment that Bluetooth was not going to be in the OS4 release. This is true, however, despite this one person's disappointment, Bluetooth was never planned for the OS4 release. If you think about it, the reason why is obvious. OS4 will probably be released well before the many Bluetooth products hit the market.

Joystick101.org has posted a wrapup of recent games for the Palm OS. This is the first of what will be a weekly series. In this edition, they cover Strategic Commander, ZIOGolf, Knight Move, and several more. -Joe C.

WorldWide Widget Works has announced that the new GamePad for the Palm Computing Platform is now available. It sells for $40 and works with the Palm III series running OS 3.x.

Jeff Hawkins, CEO of Handspring and co-creator of the Palm platform, used a session at PalmSource 2000 this week to dispel a few false myths about the Palm. These have been spread by the Palm community's rivals in an attempt to spread fear, uncertainty, and doubt (FUD) and remove the luster from the foremost handheld computing platform. Microsoft is well known for using this tactic on its competitors and Hawkins mentioned Symbian, too.

Hawkins started off with "The Palm can't do Multimedia". He used a Prism to play a video and an MP3 file. Next he tackled "The Palm can't do telephony" by plugging in a mobile phone Springboard and trying to call someone who he claimed was Colly Myers, Symbian's CEO. When all he got was voicemail, Hawkins started a three-way conference call and then sent an SMS message.

Palm has hitched their wagon to the Bluetooth star but they missed their own deadline to build Bluetooth into OS 4. Sometime after the release of OS 4 there will be an update to the OS to add full Bluetooth support.

There won't be any Palm handhelds with built-in Bluetooth hardware for a while, either. After the software support is ready, Palm intends to release a sled with its own processor, an RF module, and serial chipset that draws power from the Palm. This should be available in early 2002. Don't expect to see a Palm with built-in Bluetooth hardware until later in 2002.