At a Sony meeting yesterday, an executive flashed a future PDA or terminal currently in development. Such a quick flashing of product was done just months before the NR70V came out last year, so it could indeed be a product about to enter the pipeline. No pricing, nor even evidence that it would be a CLIE product exists, but it appears to be a clamshell device. Palminfocenter.com says that the device is reported to have integrated wireless and a camera in the hinge. Sony Japan has also announced two new CLIEs, the NX80V and NX73V. 
The 80 will have a 1.3 megapixel camera and the 73 will have a .3 megapixel camera. Both will have the new 200MHz Intel PXA263 processor, which has 32MB of StrataFlash memory built in. The 80 will have 32MB RAM and the 73 will have 16MB. It is unclear in the babelfish translation, but the CF slot built into the new devices appears to support use of CF memory cards in addition to the 802.11b wireless LAN card. These devices have not been announced for the US market. -- Posted Thursday, May 29, 2003
Last two issues posted
With a little time before the holiday, I've been able to post some of the Palm content from the latest Pen Computing Magazines. Many stories will lack the images; can't say for sure when I'll have time to put them up. To get to this content, click this link. Also, notice the Palm Speed table on the lower right of the Palm Section to see a speed comparison of the latest Palm OS devices. -- Posted Friday, May 23, 2003
PalmSource kicks off DevCon with new licensees, RIM alliance
New licensees Aceeca and Tapwave were announced today by David Nagel at the PalmSource developer conference. They also announced an alliance with RIM.
Aceeca, a New Zealand company, is announcing the Meazura handheld with a proprietary expansion slot called MZIO. The new device is being billed as an IDA, or Industrial Digital Assistant, which they're describing as a diagnostic measurement handheld. Features include Palm OS 4.1, Dragonball 33MHz, 16MB SDRAM, 4MB Flash, IrDA, serial, RS232 and USB, and a 1900mAhr Lithium Ion battery, and ruggedization. http://www.aceeca.com
Tapwave is looking to fill the gaming "gap" between the large TV console games and the Nintendo GameBoy. Specs include a horizontally-oriented half-VGA screen, a proprietary analog, or joystick-like control, and up to eight quick-launch hardware buttons that, through menuing, can access up to 64 games in a hurry. The new device is expected to be available in late 2003. http://www.tapwave.com
And according to Nagel, they were up late the night before finalizing a deal with RIM (Research in Motion) to "work together to market and promote the BlackBerry Connect solution to Palm OS licensees to enable secure, push-based email and data connectivity..." Nagel said that the BlackBerry infrastructure has already been deployed in more than ten thousand companies and government agencies. RIM makes its own competing handhelds that operate on Mobitex and GSM/GPRS networks. http://www.palmsource.com | http://www.rim.net | http://www.blackberry.com -- Posted Tuesday, May 6, 2003
First dead pen at Pen Computing Office
It had to happen. The Wacom pen of our Toshiba Portege Tablet PC fell on the floor and stopped working. An autopsy revealed a broken magnetic core. The Portege has no backup pen and according to the Toshiba website replacement pens "usually ship within 1-2 weeks." Ouch. I called shoptoshiba.com to see if I could get one overnighted. No can do, says Toshiba (or rather a fairly grouchy rep). Double-ouch! Until a new pen arrives the Portege is now a regular notebook without pen functionality or ink. -- Posted Thursday, May 1, 2003