ZDNet offers an interesting overview of Linux-based PDAs.

PhatWare has announced 20% Holiday Season pricing through 31Jan02 on the following products: CalliGrapher 6.01 English Editions; HPC Notes 3.07 Editions; HPC NetProfile 1.4; HPC Spell 2.5; and HPC dbExplorer.

Cutting Edge Software has announced the release of Quickoffice 5.6.2 for Palm OS that includes Quicksheet, Quickchart, and Quickword applications. The new version of Quickword supports formatting, bulleted lists, justification, fonts, color, highlighting, HTML editing, and better integration with Microsoft Word. The new version of Quicksheet has 25 more spreadsheet functions, and support for color screens.

PenRight! has is now shipping MobileBuilder v2.1 (cross-platform, rapid application development tool) that supports building handheld solutions that run on Windows CE/PocketPC, Palm, and MS-DOS operating systems. Some other key features: Visual C++ v3.0 emulator; Symbol scanner support; improved distribution runtime; and a demo version for evaluation.

Palm is offering through 15Nov01 their Palm OS v4.1 Upgrade with Mobile Connectivity for US$30 (1-800-881-7256).

WirelessWeek is reporting that Aerie Networks (Denver, Colorado) has been awarded Metricom's complete assets for US$8.25 million by a California bankruptcy court. Aerie has announced plans to team with communities and local service providers to reactivate the wireless Internet service in 17 markets.

Lineo has announced Embedix Plus PDA that will include Opera Software's Opera 5 for Linux Web browser, Trolltech's Qt/Embedded & QT Palmtop graphical user interfaces, and Insignia Solution's Jeode PDA Edition. This complete package will come pre-installed on the new Sharp Zaurus SL-5000D Linux/Java-based handheld.

-Steve Holden (sholden@pencomputing.com)