ARM has announced that the "ARM7TDMI 32-bit RISC processor has been designed for the new Sony SCPH-4000 PocketStation"--a miniature Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) companion to the Sony PlayStation game console. This single chip design contains "the CPU, flash memory, RAM, LCD controller, digital to analog converter for PCM sound, and bi-directional infrared communication capability (IrDA)." The "integrated circuit" (IC) supplier to Sony for the SCPH-4000 is Atmel Corp.

IBM has announced a new secure computing solution called "Asset ID" (radio frequency asset tracking) that will be available in IBM's new ThinkPad 770Z (US$4799) and 600E (US$2999) notebooks.

ZDNET and PC Magazine have announced their "First Annual Ziff Davis (ZD) Palm Pilot Software Awards" and posted the "winners" to the "ZD Palm Pilot Software Library".

PC World is covering the news of six new mobile CPUs from Intel in two articles: #1. "INTEL MOBILE CHIPS POWER FASTEST NOTEBOOKS", and #2. "INTEL UNVEILS FIRST CELERONS FOR MOBILE SYSTEMS". The new mobile Celeron chips (codenamed "Dixon") offer speeds in the 333MHz and 366MHz range. [SOURCES: Reuters, Business Week, INTERNET WEEK]

Adam Tow notes the posting of pictures from the Fifth Anniversary Stanford Newton User Group (SNUG) meeting. Adam notes that "about 26 Newton users, former employees, and developers were on hand to sit and chat about the Newton at Printer's Inc. It was quite the turnout, as we took over almost half of the space in the coffee house!"

Softwarebuero Mueller has released Countries 1.1.1 ("fixes an Error 0 message on some devices") for the Newton (US$10 shareware). This package is an extension for the preferences roll that allows users to change and create Country Specific Settings and reference data.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)