Qualcomm and Hitachi will jointly develop and commercialize a high data rate mobile-phone system. Read the article here. The system will be compatible with existing cdmaOne networks and has a maximum throughput of 2.4 megabits per second. Also in related news, General Motors is in talks with Bell Atlantic to put cell phones in millions of new cars and trucks. The article states that, All major automakers are scrambling to make sure drivers are as connected to global communications grids in their cars as they are in their homes and offices. You have to bet there will be some sort of hook-up, USB, IR or maybe even Bluetooth, so you could connect your laptop or Palm device into your wireless car modem.

BulletProof Corporation today released a beta version of JDesignerPro 4.0 with groundbreaking support for building wireless enterprise applications for Palm OS devices. JDesignerPro 4.0 is the first widely available RAD tool that allows virtually anyone to create wireless handheld enterprise applications with little or no programming experience. A free trial of JDesignerPro 4.0, can be downloaded from www.bulletproof.com. Multimedia training tools are also available at no charge from the same site. More...

UPDATE: The Register has yet another article on the Apple Palm this one details that the new Mac OS X will have built in support for a Palm device. Any Palm device connected to a Mac will display the contents of its memory as a Mac OS disk. There's also a blurb at MacOSRumors.

Wired has a good news piece with new information on the much talked about Apple/Palm PDA. Sources close to Apple say that the prototype is a hybrid of the Palm V and the Handspring Visor, with the Palm V's form factor, a color screen, and an expansion slot. It also will be compatible with Apple's Airport wireless networking hub, and will integrate seamlessly with the Mac OS. But don't get your hopes up to soon, Wired mentions that the device may not be announced until mid-year. This unit sounds like a real winner to me what are your opinions on this?

Qvadis Corporation and Editio Online Publishing today announced a joint marketing and distribution partnership. Under the agreement, Editio becomes Qvadis' premier partner for original fiction and nonfiction e-book publishing.

Qvadis' new e-bookstore, launched today, will feature Editio's line of electronic books - some of which have been national bestsellers in their original print form. Under the FrontList imprint, Qvadis users will be able to access descriptions of Editio's titles, purchase them, or link to the Editio-Books.com site for excerpts and author biographies.

Xerox won a ruling that lets the world's biggest copier maker pursue 3Com in court on claims it infringed on a handwriting- recognition software patent used in Palm electronic organizers. The U.S. Patent and Trademark office confirmed Xerox's patent Dec. 16, prompting both companies to ask a federal judge to lift a June order suspending the suit, 3Com said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing. Xerox sued U.S. Robotics, now owned by 3Com, in 1997 in U.S. District Court in Rochester, New York, saying it invented the recognition technology in 1993. Read the full article at CNET.

Everyone knows that there are thousands of uses for your Palm, but I never quite imagined this... Tide the laundry detergent company has released an app that will help you fight those stains in your laundry. The Stain Detective will ask the stain and fabric and then suggest a treatment. Funny times we live in. Source: PDAGeek

We are proud to announce the release of our new PQA. Palm VII or OmniSky users can get the latest Palm OS news wirelessly. The app will grab the latest headlines and stories from PalmInfocenter.com formatted for Palm devices. Head over to PalmGear to download it. If you don't have a Palm VII or wireless modem you can subscribe to our AvantGo channel to get you news on the go.

A Smaller.com reader noticed this page on Sony's Japanese site. It looks to be a Sony VAIO line accessory/PDA. Judging by a mini-translation on PDABuzz, this doesn't look to be a Palm OS based machine. It's similar in size to a Palm V but has a 320 x 240 LCD screen and apparently you can't input data, only download it for viewing from your PC. Looks like a cool PDA nonetheless.

We had some technical difficulties (Windows NT) this weekend with the web server that hosts this site. The site was down from mid Saturday until about 6PM Monday. We apologize for the outage and any inconvenience. The problem has been remedied and the site should continue to operate as normal.

This has been in the rumor mill for quite some time now... The Register is reporting that now that early samples of an Apple-branded PalmOS-based device have already started coming off Taiwanese production lines.

Check out the ECA INC web site for enhanced instructions, containing photos and hints, for installing the TRG Xtra Xtra memory card. Also there are Photos of the inside of a Palm IIIx.