Sprint PCS has begun to test "PCS Voice Command" speech recognition solutions for mobile phones with motorists in New York City. Pricing for this service is expected to be US$10 a month. You can learn more via a recent review by ZDNET.

Palmtop Software has released a new 3D racing game from Palm OS devices called "V-Rally" (originally developed by Infogrames).

The GSM Association has announced at the recent Simple Messaging Service (SMS) Conference held in London, UK that in August there were over 9 billion text messages sent worldwide during that month, and that they expect 15 billion text messages to be sent worldwide in December. [SOURCE: Mobile Lifestreams]

Notlader (site in German with link to English page) is an emergency battery charger for Palm IIIc and Palm V form-factor devices. There is a short review of the product in Palmtop Pro #19 (German).

Clarion is reporting that they have only sold 3500 AutoPC (Windows CE based) in-car computers since introduction in 1998. Clarion continues to move forward with the concept, working on a new version that will offer: revamped Windows CE OS, support for DVD and MP3, simpler interface, and improved voice recognition. [SOURCE: Wall Street Journal, 04Oct00]

Sony has announced a new Walkman device that they are calling "Airboard." The unit connects wirelessly to a base-station that will enable in-house/yard mobile TV watching, email checking, and Web surfing. [SOURCE: San Jose Mercury News, 28Sep00]

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)