IBM today annouced its new "Jupiter" class Windows CE based HPC called the IBM WorkPad z50. The z50 has an ERP of US$999, uses a 131 MHz NEC processor, has 16MB RAM, contains a 33.6K modem, and touts an 8.2-inch DSTN display with 64K video RAM and 640x480 VGA resolution. IBM has posted a full announcement paper on the product.

NEC and Magellan have announced a new alliance to produce low-cost GPS chips that can be easily integrated into future handheld devices. In announcing this agreement, NEC reported that a recent internal study is predicting that nearly 5% of all handheld devices sold in Japan in the year 2000 will have GPS capabilities.

Iambic has announced a "lightweight entry-level time and expense tracking solution" called AllTime for the Palm OS. You can track all your time working for specific customers and tasks using the "stop watch" feature. Billable time reports can be generated on your Palm OS device or uploaded to desktop systems for further processing.

Glenayre Technologies has announced joining the Wireless Alliance organization, and will contribute technology solutions that will make it easier for ReFLEX communications savvy paging carriers/manufacturers to link to handheld devices.

ZDNET's PalmPilot Express for 20Apr99 has been posted to ZDNET's PalmPilotSoftware.com. The "Editor's Picks" includes a pointer article to the "ten top utilities" and a more in-depth article about "financial" savvy Palm OS solutions. This issue also contains references to the following "Hot Files"--StockPilot, BlackJack Solitaire, MiPalm Installer, Mobile LinkDoc, and PassMan (Norman).

Holger Mueller has announced that Softwarebuero Mueller has released SBM Utilities v1.4.1 (US$39). This Newton based utility package consists of several modules for cleaning soup indexes, backup, soup editing, and program launching.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)