Strategy Analytics has released a new "handheld market survey" that is forecasting that Windows CE and Symbian EPOC are in a "race" to establish a "de facto industry standard for handheld operating systems," but that no real standard will actually emerge and neither technology will dominate the handheld marketplace like the desktop marketplace. [Source: M2 Presswire & TeleComWorldWide]

The European Commission (EC) has given the go ahead to the Symbian mobile computing initiative being proposed by Psion, Nokia, Ericsson, and Motorola.

SiRF has announced two new major strategic alliances: one with Ericsson to incorporate SiRF GPS technology in mobile phones (which is also what Nokia has previously announced plans to do); and another with Hitachi to use SiRF GPS technology in combination with Hitachi's SH RISC processor offerings for future consumer based products. Learn more about Ericsson's wireless phone offerings.

One of SiRF's major competitors is "SnapTrack", according to an article entitled "Companies Take Different Paths In Pairing GPS, Handsets" published in the 11Aug98 edition of Wireless Today. The article notes that SnapTrack is working with Texas Instruments (TI) to build a wireless GPS DSP chip that could be used by major CDMA partners: Airtouch, Ameritech, Bell Mobility, GTE Wireless, PrimeCo, Sprint PCS, and U.S. West.

Communication Intelligence Corporation (CIC) is reportedly now shipping their handwriting recognition software called "Jot" for PalmPilot devices.

Flash Sheridan reports that the Stanford Windows CE User Group meets at 7 p.m. on the last Tuesday of each month -- the next meeting will be on 25Aug98. This will be a joint meeting with the Stanford Newton User Group, which meets on the 2nd and 4th Tuesday of each month. The Guest of Honor will be Sundar Krishnamurthy, Technical Evangelist, Microsoft Bay Area Developer Relations Group. The Guests of Honor for the 29Sep98 meeting will be Bob Fullerton of Parallel Design and Russ Wiitala of Sicon, who will be demoing the GoType keyboard for Windows CE. The meeting is located at Printer's Inc Bookstore Cafe, 310 California Ave, Palo Alto, California.

Dallas Morning News published on 11Aug98 an article entitled "Wired for travel: Latest electronics pack more productivity for those on the road" that includes info on the following devices: PalmPilot, SoloPoint's M-200 Mobile Home Companion, BluVenom (anti-theft device), laptops, and cellular phones.

Softwarebuero Mueller has released Secret v2.1 for the Newton. This extension will add the ability of encryption using DES to the "Notes" application on your Newton. It can encrypt the Owner Info also. A 30-day demo (English & German) has been posted, and the software costs US$15 to register.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)