Palm, Inc.has announced the PluggedIn@Palm Program to help developers quickly create and launch new accessories and add-ons and aid in the transition to using the SD/MMC slot. The program is designed to help during every phase of development, from early concept and development through distribution and marketing. The program formalizes and expands the services Palm already has been providing select hardware developers.

Firepad, Inc. has created the first wireless photo sharing system for Palm handhelds. Based on the company's award-winning FireViewer client and newly released FirePublisher server, the system allows uploaded photos to be accessed on demand from wireless Palms. The company is working with several leading photo sharing web Sites to make their gallery images displayable on Palm devices.

Users of wireless Palms can visit FireViewer.com to test this from a demonstration implementation of FirePublisher. FireViewer is required. Trial versions of the Windows NT-based FirePublisher server are available, too.

As the US Presidential Campaign draws to a close, the Piloteer is presenting a special edition featuring the concluding part of the Presidential Palms series. Read about how both the Bush and Gore campaigns have used Palm technology throughout the campaign season as Rick and Lynn Cousins speak with both camps. -PMN Publications

Novatel Wireless, the developer of the Minstrel line of wireless modems, has received an investment from Intel Capital as part of its Series D financing round. They intend to use the funds to continue development of its high speed wireless data offerings. Financial details were not disclosed. -Ed

InfoWorld has an article on Kyocera Wireless' forthcoming pdQ² that gives some details that weren't previously available. Quoting "sources familiar with the SmartPhone", they say it will cost between $399 to $449. The exact price will be set by the resellers, typically wireless ISPs. They go on to say that the pdQ² will have 8MB of memory and a screen smaller than that of a Palm III or V, which seems to imply that it will be about the size of the m100 screen. The whole case will be 0.86 inches thick, about five inches long, and weigh about seven ounces. The sources confirmed that it will be using OS 3.5.

PGP Security has introduced PGPwireless for PalmOS, which is based on the PGP encryption technology. It provides 256 bit strength encryption, decryption, digital signatures and authentication capabilities to secure information stored and transmitted on PDAs. The product is designed to inter-operate with the user’s desktop to ensure data is secured at all points of entry. PGPwireless for PalmOS will be available in December for $79.

OmniSky and DoubleClick have announced that they will begin a limited trial of wireless advertising in December, with a full roll-out in early 2001. They are working with users to develop and test ads that are relevant and valuable. Also, they are working as board members of the Wireless Advertising Association to develop standards that benefit the entire wireless industry.

Barak Berkowitz, president of OmniSky, said, "We are committed to advertising that adds to, rather than distracts from, the user experience. OmniSky will work closely with DoubleClick to ensure positive momentum for the entire industry."

The New Venue is holding the first ever film festival on the Palm, the Aggressively Boring Film Festival, and they are calling on professional and amateur digital filmmakers to submit entries. The festival is being held to celebrate the release of the Sony Clié, which comes bundled with Generic Media's new gMedia for playing video clips.

All submitted films will go on display and be available for download from the New Venue and Generic Media Web sites. The top films will be presented in the Sony Clié booth at Comdex in Las Vegas, November 13th - 17th. One gMedia film will be voted "Best Film" and the winner will receive a new Sony Clié.

Palm Inc. and Hewlett-Packard's VeriFone division have agreed to work together to create infrared payment technology for handhelds. In the short term, they will work together to permit the secure transfer of financial and payment info from a Palm to a VeriFone point of sale (POS) payment terminal using IR, and then onto existing financial institutions' payment networks. Long term, they want Palm handhelds to access third party content through VeriFone payment terminals.

ShowMeLinux has written a tutorial for synchronizing a Palm handheld with a PC running Linux. It gives step by step instructions for installing and using pilot-link which provides some command-line utilities for communicating with your Palm in Linux, and J-Pilot, a graphical front-end that makes the task a little more enjoyable.

EditROM allows you to modify any Palm OS ROM Image (i.e. delete stuff you don't need to free up more room for FlashPro, permanently add your 'mission critical' programs.) Once designed, you simply flash your new ROM over.

This application is a beta and using it violates your warranty. Use at your own risk.

Aportis Technologies Corp., the publisher of AportisDoc, and Coola Inc. have announced Doc Coolets, which allow any Web page to be saved in Doc format. This frees Coolets from the 4 thousand character limit previously imposed by having all text Coolets be saved in Memo Pad format.

Web site owners can make their site accessible to Palms by placing an HTML tag called a 'Document Coolet' on the pages. Coola users need to download a new version of the Coola desktop app in order to use Doc Coolets. Coola Docs can be read with AportisDoc Mobile Edition or other Doc readers.

PalmGuru is now providing real-time conversion of many of its reviews via Doc Coolets.