Jiji Press English News and Asia Pulse are both reporting that NEC and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have announced plans to sell color Windows CE Handheld Professional devices in Japan by the end of March 1999. Other companies like Casio, Compaq, Sharp, Hitachi, and Fujitsu are suppose to follow NEC (Mobile Gear II MC-R700) and HP's (Jornada 820) lead soon thereafter.

Hot on the news of the new 3Com's Palm Computing Palm OS devices--Palm IIIx and Palm V--IBM has announced their respective devices--the "WorkPad 30x" and the "WorkPad c3"--that come bundled with Lotus EasySync software and IBM's Mobile Connect sync software. IBM is also reportedly now marketing a Japanese language version of their line of Palm OS WorkPad devices in Japan. [SOURCE: Nikkei English News, PC World]

PC Magazine and Information Week are both reporting that Compaq and Hewlett-Packard (HP) have been "demoing" color Windows CE palm-size PCs to select industry analysts and journalists. The Compaq device is called the "Aero 2100" and the HP device is called the "Jornada 420" (5" x 3" x 1", 9 ounces). The units are expected to ship soon.

Hitachi has announced a "tablet-style" Windows CE savvy handheld PC called the "HPW600ET" that will retail for under US$1200 and should be shipping in Q2'1999. The device will weigh 29.6 ounces, come in a 8.7"x 6.3" x 1.2" form factor, and offer a "resistive touch flat-screen." The HPW600ET will also be powered by Hitachi's SuperH SH-4 RISC processor running at 128MHz. [SOURCES: Business Wire, Newsbytes]

SanDisk has announced that JVC will be using SanDisk's new "MultiMediaCards" for their new "JVC GR-DVM70U Digital DualCam." And Panasonic has also announced that their new digital still cameras, the PV-L759 (US$800) and the PV-L859 (US$900), will use SanDisk's CompactFlash storage cards.

Eureka Lee has announced the freeware release of "WordNewt" for the Newton--a lexical database for the English language. You can learn more via www.cis.nctu.edu.tw/~is84007.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)