Microsoft announced today that the Office 2001 suite for the Macintosh will be available in October. The only area of interest where the Palm is concerned is that Entourage 2001, the e-mail and personal information manager, synchronizes with Palm OS handhelds so Mac users can access their Calendar, Address Book, Categories, Tasks and Notes from anywhere. However, no mention was made of a conduit for syncing e-mail.

Geek.com has new details of Palm's latest Palm. The Palm, codenamed Calvin, will feature a changeable faceplate, new handwriting software, and more and will sell for approximately $150. Check out more details at Geek.com. (Keep in mind that this is an unconfirmed rumor, but logical nonetheless -R)

Update: Geek.com has released more details on this rumor. Calvin should ship in August and Calvin II is supposed to ship with a USB/serial combo cable, sell for $199, and also feature a brand new e-mail app. Calvin I is expected to drop to $129 when the new one comes out. No date was given for the release of Calvin II.

After spending most of June and early July under $28, the price for Handspring stock has recently shot up to $46 at yesterday's close. This run-up started when the quiet period after the IPO ended. This allows company management and its IPO investment bankers to talk-up the stock., which Handspring's underwriters are taking full advantage of.

Credit Suisse First Boston, the lead underwriter for Handspring's IPO, called the stock a "buy". U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray, another underwriter for the deal, gave it a "strong buy". The two other underwriters, Merrill Lynch and Donaldson Lufkin & Jenrette, rated the stock "long term buy" and "buy," respectively.

As promised, Palm has made available a patch to address a faulty memory chip inside a limited number of Palm IIIxe. This new version 1.0.3 patch is an upgrade to the patch available for the Palm IIIc and Vx which was released late last month.

Palm now has a software fix for all its affected models. If you have a TRGpro, TRG suggests you upgrade to their version of OS 3.5.1, which is free. Visor has a test application available but if you find the flaw, just suggests you call tech support. They are still developing their patch. Palm has also posted a test app and a software patch for the IBM WorkPad c3.

NPUG will be hosting it's second online chat this Thursday from 7-9pm. This weeks topic will be "E-mail," so if you have any questions or comments related to using your Palm device for email, be sure to attend.

Logging on is simple, just go to our "Chat" Tab with a Java based web browser, type in your name and click on the "Click Here" button. Next thing you know, you'll be chatting with the rest of the membership!

The next meeting of the Los Angeles Palm User Group (LAPUG) will be this Saturday, July the 22nd, at 1030am.

The LAPUG meeting will be at the American InterContinental University (AIU) in Los Angeles at 12655 West Jefferson Blvd in rooms 516/517. Check out the LAPUG web page for directions and a map to AIU.

The San Francisco PalmPilot User Group is dedicated to connecting and supporting the San Francisco Bay Area users of the Palm OS based family of handheld computers.

We meet on the 3rd Thursday of every month. Our next meeting will be on July 20, at 7:00 pm.

We meet at Club-i, the incredible cyber-cafe in downtown San Francisco. The address is 850 Folsom Street, between 4th and 5th Streets. There's a parking lot across the street, and street parking is free after 6pm. Please see www.sfpug.org for maps and driving directions.

Public Safety Group's PocketCop allows users limited access to State and Federal databases over Palm.Net. With PocketCop, an authorized user can access Vehicle License Registration, Drivers License Information, Stolen Vehicle Information, Wants/Warrants Information and more.

"PocketCop will also provide capabilities to a broader array of police such as those walking a beat or riding on horseback, motorcycles or bikes," Nagle explained. "In addition, it also offers e-mailing and messaging capabilities -- a vast improvement over voice transmissions which can be monitored by anyone with a police scanner."

GetHighTech.com is taking preorders for the axxPac, which they will be selling for $89.99. This ends the long wait for a U.S. distributor for the SmartMedia card reader for the Palm III/IIIx. The company should begin fullfiling orders in about two weeks.

Thanks to the numerous people who brought this to our attention.

Issue XIII of the Piloteer Magazine, the original publication for users of the Palm Computing platform, is now available. The latest edition is bursting with the very best news, views, reviews, features and tutorials - including exclusive coverage of how Palms are being used in the US Presidential Campaign, reviews of the newest Palm competitors and interviews with Palm executives.

This is a message to all of you in the San Antonio, TX area. X-otic Computer Systems of San Antonio, "THE USERS GROUP FOR MULTI-PLATFORM POWER USERS!", is trying to spawn a PUG for the SATX area. Nick Borko and myself and going to make a State of the Palm presentation. If you are interested in the Palm platform, please come to the meeting on June 17th. You can find more info on the website. If you can't make it, and are interested in future events, please email us!