Go2Mac's Palm Lounge has some details on the next generation pqQ Palm cell phone combo. The current model offers the convenience of wireless data and voice at a cost of very heavy pocket. "Kyocera owns Qualcomm's cellular division now, and sources in Kyocera's sales force have told corporate customers to look for a new pdQ Smart Phone that will make its way to market shortly... The new phones will be one inch shorter and nearly half as thick as they are now." I also assume that they would also update the OS and hardware on the pqQ to use the current Dragonball EZ and the higher contrast LCD screen.

CNET has a small article on the news that Palm hit a record low in trading on Tuesday. For a moment Palm actually fell below their IPO price of $38 a share, but recovered slightly to close at $38.25. "The fall comes after Palm said last week that higher marketing and supply costs and lower prices for its devices will lead to operating losses for several quarters. It also comes as many technology-related stocks have been declining." Now may be a good time to buy...

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Atelier software made good on their promise to have the color version of SimCity available at the end of March. I haven't had a chance to play with it much yet, but it looks great! (Also check out our review of SimCity classic if you haven't already. -R)

Macromedia is working hard to port its Flash 5 player to every possible platform, including the Palm OS. Flash is a multimedia tool and file format rapidly becoming an Internet standard for its wide availability and small file size.

According to PCWorld, "players for Symbian devices, Palms, and Web phones are in the works." This was announced at the Flashforward 2000 user conference in San Francisco this week.

Smaller.com tipped me off to pictures and specs of a Palm OS device with an integrated minidisc player from Sony. I'm not sure if this is an April fools prank or not, but the device looks stunning. There is a color and black and white model that feature a rechargeable battery, USB docking, data storage and mp3 playback from minidiscs and the ability to have a MiniDisc playing while running palm applications. This almost sounds to good to be true. Update: This MiniDisc player on Sony's site looks to be the source of the Photo's and the MSRP of that model is $399, I doubt they would add the Palm OS for only $50. This had to be one of the best Palm April fools jokes!

It seems that Palm spoofs were very popular this April Fools day... It all started with the ApachePDA palm web server which now has a note up about the joke. Themes.org started a mock Palm themes section, without prior knowledge that you really can theme the Palm OS. Dogfighter.com has a write-up on a Palm flight simulator. SoCal CaseWorks announced the Swiss Navy Organizer. Did you hear that you can get wireless palm net access with this app without a modem! And last but not least, Keith writes that his new site PalmFoolery.com will be launched soon.

Handspring announced today that it has filed a registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering of its Common Stock. All the shares will be offered by Handspring and Credit Suisse First Boston will lead manage the underwriting group. You can find the press release on yahoo. I wonder if they'll follow Palm's footsteps and release a color device a few days before the offering. Update: News.com has an article and analysis of the HandSpring IPO.

This morning Slashdot has a story on the Apache web server being ported to the PalmOS. Apachee week also has an announcement and description of the project as well. The ApachePDA project even seems to be running an alpha release of the server. Just be mindful of the last modified date on the bottom of the page ;)

The Palm Reader alerted me to a new and rather interesting web clipping app. The StarCD pqa will identify songs in real-time that are playing on the radio and even lets you buy them on the spot, wirelessly. Check out their website for more info, currently the app only supports the Philadelphia and San Francisco airwaves, but more cities are expected to be rolled out soon. It's great to see more cool wireless apps like this for the Palm platform, and I expect this to be a big hit. I used to work in a record store myself and I can't tell you how many times customers came in looking for a song on the radio that they didn't know anything about.

Now you can leverage the signing power of your Palm device with onSign, your free online signing tool. onSign provides an intelligent way to add your signature to electronic documents. With onSign you can capture your signature using your Palm device and drop it into any Microsoft Word 97 or Word 2000 document. onSign binds your signature to the document to help prevent tampering. It knows exactly what you’ve signed, when you’ve signed it and where. As easy as putting pen to paper, onSign works at the speed of the digital world. onSign provides you with a personal, easy and intelligent way to exercise your online identity. To get more information about onsign, and to download our free signing tool, visit our website.