Avidian Technologies introduced Prophet 2004, a new solution that adds sales and contact management features into Outlook. With Prophet 2004, Outlook 2000/XP acts as a user’s only application for sales tracking, personalized group emails, contact management, reporting, and sharing of sales information, in addition to Outlook features of email, calendar, tasks, and appointments.

UpShot Corporation announced that it has filed a countersuit in the Federal District Court in San Francisco against salesforce.com. UpShot has asked the court to enjoin salesforce.com and its salespeople from using misleading information in its Web site content, sales literature, press materials, and communications to customers. Last month, salesforce.com filed a complaint alleging that UpShot’s recent advertising claims were violations of state and federal laws against false advertising, unfair competition, and unfair business practices.

Snerdware LLC has released AddressX 1.0, the first component of an integration suite for Mac OS X and Microsoft Exchange Server 2000. According to MacCentral, AddressX lets you view and search a company’s Global Address List (GAL) directly from the Mac OS X Address Book.

Yosemite Technologies announced that HP is now shipping TapeWare XE Version 7.0 with a range of HP tape drives. More functionality is available with Version 7.0 through upgrades including: Agent for Microsoft SQL Server, Agent for Microsoft Exchange Server and Library Expansion Pack.

Sun Microsystems unveiled its open source-based desktop environment known as Project Mad Hatter at Linux World. The project targets enterprises looking to drive down the costs of their desktop computing environments. Desktop Linux reports that Project Mad Hatter offers interoperability with Microsoft Office and Exchange, Lotus Notes productivity and communications tools and the enhanced security and authentication services of Java Card and the Sun ONE stack.

NewsGator 1.3, a new version of the news aggregator for Microsoft Outlook, was announced today by NewsGator Technologies. NewsGator retrieves news from news sites, weblogs, and other information sources that support the RSS syndication format, and automatically integrates the news items into Microsoft Outlook folders. In addition to RSS feeds, NewsGator 1.3 adds the ability to subscribe to NNTP (Usenet) newsgroups.

PC Magazine has this review of the Hitachi SH-G1000 smartphone with service provided by Sprint PCS. The SH-G1000 is a fully powered Pocket PC 2002 Phone Edition PDA with a built in CDMA/1xRTT single-band phone, an integrated QWERTY keyboard, a 640-by-480 resolution digital camera, and an SD slot. Users with PCS Business Connection Enterprise Edition software can push Lotus Notes or Microsoft Outlook email and PIM data directly to the phone for access both in and out of coverage areas.

Sprint and Samsung announced that the Samsung SPH-i500, a full-color Palm Powered PCS Phone in a clamshell form factor, is now available nationwide in Sprint Stores for a suggested retail price of $599.99. It includes a CD-ROM with Palm OS 4.1 Desktop Software, PocketMirror Standard from Chapura for synchronizing with Microsoft Outlook, Weblink to PCS Business Connection for real-time wireless email, trial Palm OS applications provided by Handango, a Palm Game Pack and a user’s guide.

Novell acquired Ximian Inc., one of the major drivers behind the GNOME project to create a Linux-based desktop, and Mono, software that allows applications developed under Microsoft’s .Net to run on Linux and Unix. Computerworld reports that the company’s Ximian Evolution software integrates email, calendaring, contact management and task lists that are all part of one package. The product is compatible with Microsoft’s Exchange server and Sun Microsystems’ Open Net Environment, and sometime this year will support Novell’s GroupWise product.

Icode announced the general availability of Everest Advanced Edition 2.0. Based on a Microsoft SQL database, Icode’s Everest Advanced Edition 2.0 includes accounting, inventory, e-commerce, purchasing, shipping, receiving, sales force automation, marketing management, contact management, returned merchandise authorization, point-of-sale, and U.S. payroll.