Ziff-Davis has announced a new "ZDNET PalmPilot Software Library" collection of the "best" software for PalmPilot devices. The site will test, rate, and review software.

PC World is reporting that "PHILIPS NINO [is a] WELL-DESIGNED HANDHELD".

JP Systems has released One-Touch Communicator 1.01 for Palm Pilot devices. This full featured email package supports SMTP, POP3, vCard, vCalendar, and Microsoft Outlook.

Solectek has announced a new wireless bridge called the "Solectek MP1100-E" that supports the new 11Mbps standard. The product uses Harris Semiconductors PRISM 2.4-GHz Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) chipset.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) is hosting a workshop entitled Flash Sheridan reports that the Stanford Pilot User Group (SPUG) meets at 7 p.m. on the first Tuesday of each month; the next meeting will be on 04Aug98. The Guests of Honor at this meeting will be Bob Fullerton of Parallel Design, who will be demoing the GoType keyboard for the Pilot; and Alex Mou of PilotWeb, who will be demoing PilotWeb's web-based synchronization software. The meetings are held at the Printer's Ink Bookstore Cafe, 310 California Ave, Palo Alto, California.

Jenni Collins brings readers news that Power Media has changed their recently announced AOL Email client for the Palm Pilot from "Palm Flash" to "Pocket Flash."

Jeff Sweat has posted an article via Information Week Online entitled "General Magic Offers Message Integration Service" that they are calling "Portico." The system is based on "MagicTalk" voice recognition technology that makes it possible to have a "virtual assistant" available via phone calls. Portico will be priced using a monthly usage fee schedule that starts at US$19.95 for 60 minutes (plus a US$50 set-up fee.) The service will be offered initially in the United States through some 52 vendors.

PelicanWare has announced a new direct electronic purchase price of US$29.95 for AvailWorks (advanced page layout package) and Avail Point Pro (color presentation package) for Newton devices. Check out their WWW site for more details.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)