Mark Kellner has an interesting review of the recently held "Mobile Insights 1999 conference" on page 8 of the Government Computer News published for 08Mar99. The title of the article was "Drop the desktop model for handhelds, users say--conference attendees discuss wireless connectivity, handwriting recognition, and ruggedized mobile PCs."

Microsoft's Windows CE Developers Conference 1999 will be held at the Colorado Convention Center (Denver, Colorado) from 06-09Jun99. The keynotes will be delivered by Microsoft's Paul Maritz and Harel Kodesh. The "early-bird" registration fee (before 16Apr99) with the pre-conference hands-on-training is US$1300 or US$1400 after the 16th of April.

Nikkei English News is reporting that Fujitsu's Takamisawa Component has plans to release in the near future a "keyboard designed for palmtop personal digital assistants."

PC World has four interesting articles:

• Microsoft's plans for Java on Windows CE
• Sharp's new color palm-size Windows CE device called the "PV-6000" with a "flip screen"
• Brother has a new "no battery" portable printer that draws power from your laptop
• Casio has a new "low-cost" (US$399) palm-size PC called the "E-15" (16MB of memory, 16-grayscale screen) that reportedly is going to be marketed towards the potential the Palm V user.

Pretec Electronics have announced that they will begin production of a new 128MB CompactFlash (CF+) card in April 1999 and should have a 320MB card available for "sampling" by Q2'1999. The OEM price for the 128MB card is expected to be in the US$200 range.

Power Media has announced that they are giving away the "leading screen cleaner ABSOLUTELY FREE from now through the end of April 1999--no purchase necessary. Offer is limited to residents of the United States--one free kit per household." You can learn more about this offer via their URL listed above.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)