Here is a great news story about the forthcoming Palm IX organizer! It has EVERY feature you have ever requested! OK, so it's not real, but it sure is great reading! (I bet this would be the first justification of using a backpack as a carrying case!)

Microsoft has begun releasing details of its upcoming Office suite for the Macintosh. One area the software is currently weak in is synchronization. Microsoft is promising to fix this in the next version:

The personal information manager easily synchronizes with Palm Handhelds. You can take your consolidated Calendar, Address Book, Tasks, Notes and Categories on the go with Palm Handhelds.

Tantronics Limited a UK based company specilising in alternative pointers for palmtop computers has today anounced the release of 2 new pointers for the Palm comunity.
The Point III for the Palm III and the Point V for the Palm V are both made from polished Stainless Steel to provide an elegant and stylish addition to the Palm devices whilst maintaining an echonomical price tag. The Point III and Point V are available at 7.49 UKP + Tax & shipping or twin packs are available at 12.49 UKP + Tax & shipping.
Full secure On-Line ordering is available at http://www.tantronics.co.uk

GeoDiscovery announced today that it will soon be releasing the Geode, a Global Positioning System Springboard module. It is expected to ship end of this summer. It sports two removable memory card slots. Each is capable of holding up to 64MB of map data and destination content. It also has a built-in compass.

In addition, GeoDiscovery announced the GeoDiscovery Library - a collection of location-based, geo-encoded information that users can download or purchase for use with the Geode. Subjects that GeoDiscovery plans to offer through the GeoDiscovery Library include interactive maps, travel guides, history, business, recreation, adventure, family and personal travel information.

Sony chief operating officer Kunitake Ando told a Reuters reporter, the release of the Sony Palm PDA is expected in September in Japan and a month later in the States. No further details have been released but the device has been rumored to sport a color screen, enhanced audio and possibly wireless net access. The Sony PDA is expected to be shown at the PC Expo next week and could quite possibly be the talk of the show.

On June 30, Matsushita will release the first devices usings its Secured Digital (SD) Memory Card. The company is setting this new format up in direct competition with Sony's memory sticks. The postage stamp-sized SD Card, developed by Matsushita, Toshiba Corp and U.S.-based SanDisk Corp, is smaller than Sony's chewing gum-sized Memory Stick (MS).

Matsushita will roll out a flash memory card-based audio player, a next-generation audio system, and a recordable DVD player, all using their SD cards. Sony's MS cards are already in digital camcorders, "Walkman'' music players and the robotic pet "Aibo''.

IBM is creating a Compact Flash hard drive the size of a quarter with a storage capacity of one gigabyte. It can hold as much as 1,000 photos or almost 18 hours of digital audio while drawing less power than current microdrives.

IBM already has 240MB and 512MB microdrives, all of which fit into a standard CF+ Type II slot, which the TRGpro sports. The 1GB drive will start shipping in July to OEMs with retail shipment in September. It will cost less than $500.

Two years after the first Dom Perignon Speed Contest, Textware Solutions is launching a Dom Perignon II. The contest aims at providing a rational basis of comparison between alternative input methods by having participants enter the same test paragraph with various input methods on Palm Organizers and Pocket PCs.
The allowed methods include Fitaly, FitalyStamp and other overlay such as Silkyboard, Graffiti and other methods based on handwriting such as Jot and Calligrapher, a much larger set of methods than were available in 1998 for the first contest. Awards include a bottle of the prestigious Dom Perignon and 60 FitalyStamps. See this page for the full story.

Wizcom Technologies will demo their QuickLink Pen Scanner as an alternate data entry device for Palms at the June N.E.Palm User Group meeting on Tues, June 20th, 2000. The meeting will start at 6:30PM at MIT, 175 Albany St, Cambridge, MA. There will also be a Cases and Styli showcase. Lots of Door prizes! Full details at the group's web site.

Palm CEO Carl Yankowski said recently, "Voice and data are coming together, but right now I'm not sure how." He also pointed out that they could give phone capabilities to the Palm, "but I'm not sure that's what customers want."

This was during a speech with Psion Founder and Chairman David Potter on third generation wireless devices. Yankowski said that the biggest challege of 3G would be making the content and services compelling enough to make customers want to pay for them and "how to get those killer apps out on the market in a friendly way."

Michael Lunsford, who led the Palm V project, gave a speech in which he discussed Palm's plans for Bluetooth. His company sees the Palm at the centre of a 'personal connectivity bubble', used to control a variety of appliances with Bluetooth, and serving as the access point for internet content. Palm plans to provide the same internet capabilities for its Bluetooth Palm Vs as it does for the Palm VII, including access to Palm.Net. Palm has decided to disable access to Bluetooth Palms from unknown devices - only devices which know the identity of the Palm they are trying to access will be allowed to query the unit. This will satisfy privacy concerns and avoid draining the battery.