Palm, Inc. launched the Palm i705 handheld. It is the only wireless solution in the marketplace that delivers all of the following benefits: always-on "push" email from up to eight email accounts; secure, end-to-end, behind-the-firewall email for corporate users; Web browsing via Google search or URL entry; plus classic Palm Personal Information Management (PIM) features, such as Date Book and Address Book. The product is available this week in U.S. retail stores for an estimated U.S. street price of $449; a Palm.Net service subscription is required to activate the wireless functionality.

Netaphor has released its field-test version (Version 1.0 beta) of PDAlert. PDAlert is a wireless, handheld, network monitoring application running on PDAs equipped with a IEEE 802.11b card. It uses the industry standard SNMP protocol for the detection and notification of exceptional conditions in your network.

DataViz, Inc. announced that Documents To Go Professional Edition is included on the new Palm i705 wireless handheld. With the inclusion of Documents To Go, Palm, Inc.’s much-anticipated new handheld allows customers to create, view, and edit Word and Excel files as well as review PowerPoint files.

AvantGo, Inc. announced that the United States Patent & Trademark Office has granted the company its first patent. Patent number 6,341,316 covers the system, method, and computer program product for synchronizing content between a server and a client.

Odeon Software Inc. announced the release of VBToolkit for the Palm OS. The VBToolkit is a set of 14 ActiveX controls that enable Microsoft Visual Basic developers to create the corresponding desktop version to their Palm OS applications. The VBToolkit includes all of the necessary tools for creating a comprehensive desktop application. The ActiveX Control suite includes a User Combo Box control, a Database Grid with in place editing, a Masked Edit Control, and a Category Combo Box.

The SCOTT eVEST Version 2.0 has been released. The SCOTT eVEST has been designed with today’s modern and mobile person in mind and features the patent-pending Technology Enabled Clothing system. Version 2.0 is an update from the original SCOTT eVEST with zip-off sleeves and more advanced features, including wrinkle-free, micro-fiber fabric, more connectivity (ability to wire directly through the lining), a back pocket designed to hold certain laptop computers, attention to weight management, fewer logos, ability to store items in the back without taking the jacket off, and more.

Palm has issued a press release to annuonce the PalmSource Conference and Expo, the premier gathering of the Palm OS community. It will take place from February 5-8, 2002 at the San Jose Convention Center, San Jose, California.

As enterprises come to recognise handheld computing as a key competitive differentiator, and the trend toward enterprise deployment of handhelds accelerates, Palm, Inc. is bringing together leading enterprise handheld computing solution providers at the Palm Enterprise Summit 2002 in Singapore on January 29.

The Palm Enterprise Summit is intended to inform and empower CEOs and business professionals, CIOs and IT managers, hardware and software developers, and others seeking to evaluate and deploy enterprise handheld computing solutions.

The Palm Enterprise Summit will be held in Singapore at the Raffles City Convention Centre. Attendees must pre-register and attendance is free.

InfoWorld reports Palm will unveil OS 5 at PalmSource the week of February 4 in San Jose, California. According to the article, three significant improvements include the ability to use multitasking and multithreading in applications, improved performance using OS 5 with the faster processor, and compatibility with current applications.

The third edition of IBM’s Palm OS app building series covers the employment of conduits for moving data to and from Palm OS devices. You’ll see the advantages to conduits, then learn how to install and deploy them.