Chen Lan reports that Hewlett-Packard (HP) has plans for a Jan99 release of the Chinese only Jornada 428 Color palm-size PC. Chris De Herrera's Windows CE Website has a great deal of information available about this device along with a picture. The Chinese HP site has all the official information plus the standard picture.

Palm Computing has announced that they have teamed up with BellSouth Wireless Data to provide two-way wireless communication services for their new Palm VII device at under US$10 a month. The service will be called Palm.net. Palm Computing has also announced that Certicom Corp. has supplied Palm Computing with "advanced security code" to enable Palm VII devices to participate in eCommerce, stock trading, and other financial services. [SOURCE: COMMUNICATIONS TODAY and Canada Newswire]

ZDNET has created a "premium" site dedicated to PalmPilot and Windows CE devices entitled "Office in Your Pocket."

STANDARDS! Personal Communications Industry Association (PCIA) has created a new Mobile Computing Advisory Group made up with members who represent Microsoft, Oracle, Philips Consumer Communications, and Sun Microsystems. Puma Technologies and AvantGo are starting work on an open source "network conduit" application programming interface (API) for PalmPilot and Windows CE devices that they are calling Mobile Application Link (MAL). This initiative has gotten positive responses (according to AvantGo) from 3Com, Microsoft, and Symbol Technologies.

Avi Drissman reports the release of version 1.04 of Minimizer for the Newton. This version fixes a bug with NS Basic's NewtCard programming toolkit. Minimizer is a popular utility that lets users better customize the Newton's primary GUI.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)