getAbstract.com has continued its efforts in knowledge compression by announcing that its business book abstracts now can be downloaded onto Palm devices. The abstracts - currently available in English and German - include key concepts, a professional summary, salient quotes, a no-nonsense critique, background information on the author, the newest "buzz words," and a candid, proprietary rating. These abstracts reduce the amount of time executives have to spend keeping current on the latest advancements in business, management and strategy. Update: This service isn't free is was previously reported. It is a free part of a $299 subscription.

In move that, frankly, caught many of us by surprise, Sony has announced that its Palm powered Clié handheld will be available much earlier in the U.S. than was expected. It can be ordered right now off the Sony Vaio Direct Web site for $399. It will be available in stores in September.

The downside is that only the monochrome version is being released now. Sony representative David Yang cited shortages of color displays for this. He said to not expect the color version to be released in the U.S. until the middle of next year.

Coming next friday Michael Ethetton (a.k.a. 'Maven') of Gambit Studios, author of Liberty for PalmOS, will make a special guest appearence in #palm (efnet). Not only will you be able chat with him, but you could walk away with your very own copy of the Liberty GameBoy emulator as well.

You can connect via the Palm Infocenter webchat client or connect to any efnet server with an IRC client and join #Palm.

Rhodiana is the first on the market with a case specifically designed for the Palm V/Vx and OmniSky wireless modem combo. Read more about the case in our in depth review.

Majeck is "an amazing magical way to assure yourself you won't have to worry about dropping your Palm." Majeck is not a trick but a different way to hold your Palm, similar to the way magicians hold some of their props. Read all about it in our review.

Last Friday, Aaron Ardiri, one of the developers of the Liberty GameBoy emulator, admitted he had created a trojan horse app that pretends to be a cracked version of Liberty but actually deletes all the apps from a Palm. As the first high-profile virus or trojan horse to hit the Palm community, it has gotten a tremendous amount of attention. ZDnet, CNET, and several other news sites have run articles on it, typically warning Palm users to expect a deluge of new viruses soon.

At a recent Question and Answer session on RedHerring.com, Jeff Hawkins, co-founder of both Palm and Handspring, said, "The Springboard slot was really designed for wireless communications. And you will see a cell phone [Springboard] module available before the end of the year."

According to AsiaBizTech, Acer Inc. is almost certain to receive permission next month from Palm Inc. to release a PalmOS-powered PDA in China. The hardware is ready and the software is just waiting approval from Palm.

If they can't get Palm's consent, they are considering a couple of other OSs, including Linux and @vis, but the Palm OS is clearly their favorite.

Aportis Technologies has released AportisDoc PDF Converter, a new app for viewing Adobe Systems' Portable Document Format (PDF) files on your Palm. "It takes a PDF file at the desktop level and converts it for viewing in AportisDoc on the handheld," said Aportis President David Schargel. It is free free for personal use for the first six months but after than you have to pay $14.95.

If you don't mind violating the warranty on your brand new m100, the Japanese site Palm de Cool has posted step-by-step instructions, in English, on how to upgrade your 2 MB m100 to 8 MB. If you are handy with a soldering iron and can afford to buy a new $150 m100 if you destroy this one, give it a try.

There can be little doubt that trying to predict what Allan Greenspan and his buddies on the Federal Open Market Committee will do is a major industry in America. But you can have a leg up over your rivals by getting the latest information directly on your Palm. If your PDA has Internet access, you can log onto the Federal Reserve's page specially formatted for handheld devices to get press releases, Federal Open Market Committee announcements, and some statistical releases. They even have a PQA.