Wired Online is publishing a new story entitled "Report: Microsoft's Bid to Buy Palm OS." According to documents released during the current Microsoft anti-trust legal battle with the U.S Justice Department, it has been revealed that Microsoft had at one point tried to buy Palm OS from 3Com. ZDNET's AnchorDesk also has coverage of this story.
Casio Computer of Tokyo, Japan has announced a new Silicon Valley company called CASIO Soft that will "focus on developing software for the exploding Microsoft Windows CE market." The first products from CASIO Soft will include:
Reuters in Tokyo, Japan is reporting that General Motors, Ford, Chrysler (and Daimler-Benz), Toyota, and Renault have standardized on "computer systems for future cars" that will support interoperability between manufacturers. Details are still sketchy so more specifics are expected soon.
Forbes recently published a supplement to their Forbes magazine called "Technology Buyers Guide for Fall 1998" that included an interesting quote from an analyst at the Yankee Group. The article was entitled "Windows of Opportunity: Choosing the right flavor of Widows is becoming more and more critical" by Joseph Villarosa that starts on page 68. The quote is by Yankee Group analyst Colin Mahony: "Ultimately, there will probably only be two Microsoft operating systems: Windows NT and Windows CE. Windows 95/98, as we know them, will be completely replaced."
Jason Kulas reports the creation of a new volunteer Newton Group called "THE NEWTONTALK DEVELOPMENT GROUP (NTDG)" whose primary goal is to facilitate or build Newton compatible solutions using volunteer teams. To learn more, check out and join the NewtonTalk email list server. That's all that's required to join. Or send an email message with the subject line set to "NTDG: Membership Request/Info" to Max Bonilla.
Andreas Briell at "EBB-mobile data systems" has announced a downloadable version 0.99b1 (expires on Sunday, 01Nov98) of MobileBackup for Newton 2.0 devices--a "much improved" beta backup utility.
-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)