Handspring today announces two new handhelds, both with a hot new processor, and the Prism sports a fine color screen. See the Palm OS Section for more.

MobileAria has announced new investments from Delphi Automotive Systems, the Mayfield Fund, and Palm that will enable MobileAria to move forward in plans to offer a wide-range of hands-free Internet services in Q2'01 to automobile platforms. The first phase will include voice access to Palm OS devices connected to Delphi's Communiport Mobile Productivity Center or to an Ericsson mobile phone.

PC WORLD examines Honeywell's new wireless web appliance called "WebPad."

Palm has announced the following holiday promotion: Palm IIIc 8-MB at US$329 (price reduced from US$399) plus: three color styli; Palm IIIc luggage tag; US$30 Kodak rebate on purchase of PalmPix snap-on camera; and a Holiday Promotion CD (includes: BugMe!, Klondike, Peanut Reader, Puzzles-In-Motion, Rally 1000, TealPaint Lite, & Zap!2000).

ARM has announced two new architectural extensions to their 16/32-bit RISC processor family: #1.) "Jazelle" that enhances Java performance on wireless devices; and #2.) "SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data)" for multimedia applications in low power, battery-operated devices.

Jesse Berst examines the Compaq iPaq PocketPC, and considers this new device to be a contender against Palm handhelds.

PumaTech's Intellisync v4.0 for Palm OS and Windows CE/PocketPC has been released with the following new features: view webpages using Browse-It software; support for Lotus Organizer v6.0 and Notes R5; and support for Symantec ACT! 2000.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)