Nikkei English News is reporting that Zeal (based in Nagoya, Japan) has announced a new personal digital assistant (PDA) that is personal handyphone system (PHS) savvy. The device will be targeted towards mobile salespeople, and should be available in Japan by Apr99.

The following print magazines have covered handheld news recently: Electronic Engineering Times ("Windows CE--A Real-Time OS?"), Computer Reseller News ("NEC plans to upgrade MobilePro 750C"), Consumer Electronics ("Windows CE is gaining"), San Jose Mercury News ("Email in your pocket"), and Internet Week ("Best Sites on the Internet").

In related news, PC Week Online is also publishing "Palm V in the works" (a smaller follow-up device to the 3Com Palm III), and InfoWorld Online has a new article posted entitled "Hewlett-Packard's Jornada 820: What A PC Should Be" that is very positive about this Windows CE savvy Professional Handheld PC (HPC Pro).

The European Commission has announced that they are not going to review the "merger" of Motorola with the Symbian joint venture. Analysts were mixed on the impact of this decision, but it should mean that Motorola can join Symbian without government oversight and restrictions. [SOURCE: AFX, Reuters]

TDK Systems has announced a new modem called the "Global Freedom 5660 PC Card modem" that supports the new "European CTR21 standard" and Ericsson GSM mobile phones being used in North America for fax, email, Internet access, and short message service (SMS).

Bun Ng has posted his article on "an encounter with the Stanford Newton User Group (SNUG)."

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)