Wired has reported that "Microsoft & Qualcomm [are] Making A New Company" to focus on integration of wireless technology with Windows CE. You can also learn more via ZDNET's Anchordesk.

Oracle has announced a new "strategic relationship" with Symbian to bring a wide range of "enterprise computing solutions" to Symbian's EPOC operating system via Oracle Lite client database that will provide "real-time wireless access" to data residing in Oracle databases. Symbian is a joint venture between Psion, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia.

Microsoft has announced at the recently held Embedded Systems Conference being held in Santa Clara, California that they have a "Microsoft Windows CE Platform Builder" toolkit that is ideal for building embedded systems.

Reuters France is reporting that "Participants in the Symposium ITxpo98 are hearing that the world's biggest businesses are going to be using a wider array of high tech devices (handhelds) over the next five years." Other core future technologies: "network computing, database mining, and desktop video conferences."

Nikkei English News is reporting that sales in Japan of new Japanese savvy versions of Microsoft Windows CE 2.0 devices are "brisk" compared to sales of Windows CE 1.0 devices.

Xybernaut has teamed up with En Pointe Technologies, their new marketing and distribution partner for the US and Canada, to officially announce Xybernaut's newest wearable computer--"the Mobile Assistant IV"--at the Comdex Show in Las Vegas on 19Nov98. Hewlett-Packard (HP) will continue to market and distribute Xybernaut solutions in Europe and Asia.

ARM has announced the creation of a new consortium that they are calling the "ARM Consortium for Windows CE" to help manufacturers of Windows CE devices better migrate to using ARM microprocessor technology. Some key initial members include Cirrus Logic, Intel, LG Semicon, and Texas Instruments.

SanDisk has introduced a "solid-state flash memory card in the new CompactFlash (CF) Type II form factor" (5mm thick) that can store 160MB of data. The card is expected to be on the market by Mar98 at a price around US$465.

JRAd consulting has announced new pricing for Palmedic--"their patient management solution for the Newton family of handheld computers." The new price will be US$79 and there is a US$50 price for upgrades from competitors' products. It should also be noted that a new "export" plug-in is being developed to help users transfer data out of Palmedic to other platforms.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)