Audible has announced a new strategic alliance with Random House to deliver "spoken word content" via digital distribution to Internet users. Over the next four years -- Random House Audible -- will deliver over 1000 main-line titles digitally before the cassette or CD versions are available.

The company that had their hands in designing the Handspring Visor and the Palm V/Vx -- Ideo -- has been showing off a wireless Internet savvy tablet handheld that will be powered by Transmeta's Crusoe processor. Ideo currently does not have plans to manufacture these of devices, but will ultimately work with other manufacturers like Taiwan's Quantra and S3 to bring devices to market. [SOURCE: InfoWorld]

Xybernaut has announced a new agreement with IBM that will enable IBM to "design, develop and manufacture the computer portion of Xybernaut's next generation of wearable computer systems" expected to be released in early 2001.

PC World is reporting a new mobile service from "X:Drive" in an article entitled "WEB-BASED STORAGE GOES WIRELESS: You can transfer, view, and delete files using Palm VII and WAP-enabled devices".

BSQUARE has announced plans to acquire Mainbrace Corp. for approximately $21 million. Mainbrace has been a leading Windows CE software company in the "set-top box, Web-enabled phone, wireless thin client, and electronic book reader" marketplaces.

Egghead is offering the Sharp OZ-750PC 2.5MB Organizer (40 Character x 8 Line Display) for US$80.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com) eFax: 978-246-3067