InSync Online is recommending that Macintosh Palm Pilot users investigate using Apple's new SerialDMA 2.1 extension to fix HotSync related woes. You can learn more at Palm Computing's site.

Novatel Wireless has announced the release of Minstrel Plus for 3Com Palm III devices. This wireless modem lets you send and receive data via the "Wireless IP network" which is available in most U.S. metro areas.

Air Cargo Report (13Aug98 - Vol. 5, No. 16) is reporting that Lufthansa Cargo will be deploying their first wireless tracking and tracing system at London's Heathrow Airport. The system uses wireless and handheld devices from Telxon and will be ultimately deployed at 27 Lufthansa cargo centers around the world.

American Freightways, based in Harrison, Arkansas, has recently outfitted 1000 of their trucks with a complete real-time wireless data system that links their drivers to their 221 customer service centers. The system uses Symbol Technologies' PPT 4600 handheld portable pen computers with client/server software written by Synergistic Systems. The handheld software was written using PenRight!'s pen-based cross platform rapid application development tools, and Nettech Systems' InstantRF middleware software developer kit (SDK). The system uses "Mobitex" wireless networking services offered by BellSouth Wireless Data.

South China Morning Post published an interesting story on 13Aug98 about a new "prototype handheld one-year trial" that is just started at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. The system will be deployed in the Ho Sin Hang engineering building and allow wireless handhelds to connect to the university's local area network which also gives them access to the Internet. The system will also be used in classrooms to create "two-way" communication between lecturers and students.

Kodak has announced two new "universal serial bus (USB) interface" savvy digital cameras called "the Kodak Digital Science DC220 and DC260." The DC260 offers 1.6 million pixels of resolution and six times zoom power, and the DC220 offers 1.0 million pixels of resolution and four times zoom power. Both cameras also offer serial and IrDA ports, support for Compact Flash (CF) with either JPEG or FlashPix file formats, and a two-inch LCD screen. [SOURCE: New Straits Times, "Kodak offers cameras with USB interface," 13Aug98]

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)