The nominees for the Third Annual ZDNet PDA Software Awards have been announced. Winners will be chosen in numerous categories, like best games, hacks, PQA, etc. You can participate by voting in the People's Pick award. These nominees were all chosen from applications that were new or substantially updated between March 1999 and March 2000.

The highly sought after and highly elusive Palm Portable Keyboards (PPK) have been found in stock at a single CompUSA in Woodland Hills, CA. This CompUSA is the only one with actual stock, while all others have a great number on order. All models are represented. At the time of this posting there were 3 in stock for the Palm III/VII series, 11 in stock for the Palm V/Vx series and (Believe it or not!) 3 in stock for the Handspring Visor! All models were running $99. plus tax. They do not expect to get more in until all the other stores receive their stock also, but the Woodland Hills store was completely unaware that these were in short supply and that no one else seemed to have them. Get there early for best selection! Good Luck and remember to download the beta 1.1 drivers from the Palm home page!

Qvadis' pick for the wickedest e-book available in Palm format is also this month's e-Book-of-the-Month: Ambrose Bierce's "The Devil's Dictionary". With definitions like: A Saint is "a dead sinner, revised and edited" and a Bore is "someone who talks when you wish him to listen" Bierce wields words like a pitchfork.

Qvadis - makers of Express Reader Pro and providers of a wide range of Palm e-book resources - spotlight the e-Book-of-the-Month to highlight quality books for the Palm platform.

Palm has released the Macintosh HotSync v2.6.1 update which fixes problems many users were having synchronizing via USB with their Mac's running OS 9. It is available on Palm's Macintosh Support Page.

From our "Very Cool But Not Very Practical" Department comes this hardware hack that involves installing a light behind the Graffiti writing area and the buttons. It would have to put some strain on your battery but it is wicked looking. Unfortunately, the page is in Japanese but the pictures are great. Thanks to PDAGeek for the link.

To celebrate the incredible success and expanding coverage of the PDA Verticals Network, we are giving thousands of Palm Vs to our users - FREE.

The PDA Verticals Network is the only vertically oriented network of sites for mobile professionals and includes PDAMD.com, PDAJD.com, PDAFN.com, and PDARE.com. The Network has grown to become one of the largest online resources for professionals seeking information and advice on mobile and wireless technologies because our users share the site with their friends and colleagues. We sincerely appreciate the support our users have given us in this regard and recognize that there is no better compliment to us than a user making a personal referral.

The next meeting of the Detroit Palm Users Group will be Thursday, May 18 from 7-8:30 PM in Troy, MI.

Main agenda items are a review of DateBk4, and a comparison between two digital cameras: the Kodak PalmPix and the Handspring eyemodule.

Giveaways include DateBk3 and DateBk4, compliments of C.E. Steuart Dewar.

A complete meeting agenda and directions are available at www.dpug.org.

The May meeting of the Los Angeles Palm User Group has been rescheduled. The meeting will now be held at 10:30am on Saturday, May 20th at the American InterContinental University (AIU) in Los Angeles. AIU is located at 12655 West Jefferson Blvd. Check out the LAPUG web page for directions and a map to AIU.

The May meeting will feature the new RandMcNally GPS (Global Positioning System) receiver for the Palm. And, as always, bring in your Palm and show us a couple of your favorite programs with the help of our video camera.

According to today's IMDB Studio Briefing, as part of a tie-in with the Cannes Film Festival's Palme d'Or award, Palm Inc. is selling gold-tinted versions of it's Vx computer at booths throughout the festival site. In addition, attendees can download a listing of all the film screenings and locations. Too cool! Now if I only knew someone in France...

Editor's Note: The following article is a new section we have created to allow us to pass along the rumors that we hear about developments in the Palm Community. Please keep in mind that these are all rumors. That means that many of them will turn out to be half right, or mistaken, or the products of someone's fevered imagination. Please use at your own risk. On the rumor board for this week is: What happened to the OS 3.5 upgrade?, Details leaked about OS 4?, and everyone's favorite rumor the Apple PDA.

The axxPac is now shipping. However, no reseller in the U.S. has stepped forward to sell the device, which lets Palm III series handhelds use SmartMedia cards. Their site lists resellers in Germany, Japan, Malaysia, and the Czech republic. The only response to a request to buy the device directly was an e-mail pointing out that they are still searching for a reseller in this country.

If you are interested in becoming a reseller for the axxPac, you should contact the company.