Hewlett Packard announced today that it is acquiring one of its large rivals, Compaq Computer Corporation. The combined company, which will be headquartered in Palo Alto, California, will have an estimated value of US$87 billion. HP shareowners will own approximately 64% and Compaq shareowners 36% of the merged company. HP and Compaq are among the "big four" computer manufacturers, including IBM and Dell. Both companies compete in almost all the same markets: PCs, servers, and handheld computers among them. The HP Jornada and the Compaq iPaq are some of the more popular Pocket PCs.

Envi.con has released a new version of Pilot Install, the desktop software that installs any kind of Palm OS file without requiring a full HotSync. The new version supports the VFS file system found in Palm OS 4.0, including copying files directly to expansion cards. Also supported is drag and drop conversion of files. Text files convert to Palmdoc, MIDI files convert to alarm files, and BMP and JPEG files are converted quickly for Palm use. Visit http://pinstall.envicon.com for more.

Activecenter.com sells a cardiac monitor for Palm OS handhelds called ActiveECG. Selling for US$499, the unit has no buttons, because everything is controlled through the Palm. The monitoring hardware is a simple box that clips onto the belt, and its CR123A lithium battery (a photo battery) is expected to last around six months. It measures 4.4 x 3.3 x 1 inches. Features include "QRS (heart beat) detection, pacemaker detection, leads-off sensing, active noise suppression and extensive self-testing."

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)