Cross Pen Computing Group has released a new US$35 Digital Writer Pen (ballpoint on one side, stylus on the other) that should work with nearly all handheld devices. The pen is being sold online via 3Com or you can pick one up via the following stores: CompUSA, Staples, MicroCenter, OfficeMax, and Frye's Electronics.

Cromerica Technologies has released version 1.2 of their "time zone" utility package for the PalmPilot called "TZDateBook."

Odyssey Software and Nettech Systems will be at the Microsoft Corporation Booth (Station #73) at the "Innovation on Windows Showcase" during the upcoming Las Vegas COMDEX Fall 1998 conference. They will be showing off a new wireless developer toolkit to build Windows CE to Windows NT wireless enterprise applications.

You can learn more about Sharp's new TelMail handheld device that uses PocketMail via this URL: www.sharp-usa.com/products/telmail.

3Com has announced "Enhanced IR update" (freeware) to link PalmPilot devices via IrDA to Ericsson's new 888 series mobile phones. A URL for the software download is not yet available.

Cell Computing has announced that they have created the first Pentium based motherboard that is the size of a "credit card". The unit will be demoed at the upcoming Las Vegas COMDEX Fall 1998 conference.

Eric Lyness has a very interesting mobile computing article called "Staying Wired Around The World" published for Solutions Integrator in the 01Nov98 edition starting on page 36. Eric and his wife documented their recent 5700 mile trip through Canada, Alaska, Hawaii, Costa Rica, Australia, New Zealand, and most of Southeast Asia using a Newton MessagePad 2000 and a host of wireless connectivity solutions to connect to the Internet for email access.

Michael Pohl reports a "bug fix" release of Geek Safe v1.01 for the Newton. This is a highly recommended update that fixes three serious errors that will eventually affect any user of the product. You can download the new version via Newtopia.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)