3Com's Palm Computing is now shipping their "Palm V Travel Kit" that contains an AC recharger with a three foot power cord; a laptop savvy HotSync cable; and plug adapters for the United Kingdom, Europe, and Australia.

Darren Gladstone at PC Week has published a "horizontal market" Windows CE success story entitled "Windows CE Cements the Deal." The article focuses on a company called Rental Service Corporation that has deployed a Windows CE based order fulfillment system that has been very successful in "speeding" up customer orders, and in streamlining the front-end business processes of data capture.

Samsung Electronic will be bringing a new "flip digital camera" to the US in the near future called "NexCa." This small camera will reportedly be "wallet sized," will support 1.8 million pixels, have 4MB of storage (45 pictures), and come with TV out capabilities. [SOURCE: Comline Computers, 20Apr99]

Harold Goddijn, the managing director of Psion Computer (the "hardware" part of Psion), has departed the company under "amicable" terms after being in the managing director position for the last 12 months. Reuters is reporting that an "internal review" found that this division was not moving fast enough to marketplace with new hardware offerings. [OTHER SOURCE: Financial Times]

LAPTOP NEWS: IBM is now shipping their new innovative multi-featured "thin-full" ThinkPad 570. Gateway is working on bringing 15-inch screens to their line of Solo 9150 laptops. And Dell has announced a new line of "affordable corporate laptops" that will use the new mobile Intel Celeron processor under their Latitude product line. [SOURCE: ZDNET's PC World Online and AnchorDesk]

Tricon Global Restaurants' Taco Bell has announced the selection of Thinque Systems' Windows CE savvy Merchandising Sales Portfolio for testing in a field automation pilot program that uses "mystery shopping field personnel."

Hands High Software has announced the release of a new "outlining" tool for the Palm OS called "ThoughtMill." The package was designed to help a user take notes, create an agenda, prepare a speech, or to brainstorm. Some features: checklists, hierarchical overview, and drag-n-drop.

AMR Research has a new study that shows that 51% of companies recently polled feel that they will in the future use "handheld" devices for enterprise applications even with the "perceived" high risk associated with mobile computing. Another recent survey by ComputerWorld noted that 33% out of 259 IT professionals noted having handheld devices being used within their organizations.

This Old Newt has been updated with a "feature review" of Rick Armstrong's golf "Scorepad." There is also a new "Used Price Guide" and the "Newton Web Ring" has been cleaned out. This Old Newt is also "Newton" Web browser friendly.

George Huhn notes that Qualcomm's Eudora group has released "Now Update and Contact Newton-Macintosh Synchronizer" as "freeware" (previously it was offered for just under US$30).

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)