I'm told the technology is named for the Viking king who unified a bunch of the unruly hordes in Denmark in the 900's. It's hoped that this technology will unify the unruly hordes of communication standards that we currently have on the planet now. Oh, how I adore code names.

Cool conference stuff
This year's conference materials came in a swank little backpack complete with a built-in laptop sleeve, loads of pockets, and the PalmSource 99 logo stitched on the front. Also inside, along with the requisite T-shirts, conference schedule, and ton of advertising flyers, was a CD from TRG with a flash memory card in it, which said, "Come on by our booth to see if you won a TRG Pro!" Well, I never win stuff, but I figured I had a fifty percent chance if I actually tried, and a zero percent chance if I didn't. The spirit of the game won me over and I went over to their booth to try my luck at the new TRG Pro. The TRGPro is like the Palm IIIx only in another dinner jacket with a CompactFlash Expansion Slot.

So I dutifully trundled over to the booth and said "Well? Have I won? Am I a winner?" To his credit, the guy laughed and then a look of surprise came over his face and he said, "You did win!" I won a TRGPro unit! I never win things! I was pretty surprised but I was pleased nonetheless. Apparently I was the first person to win, so the guys there were pretty happy to have me walking around telling people I won. We took some pictures of me with my new device. Check out Figure A to see me with my TRGPro. [Of course, now we can expect Fredlet to review the TRGPro. Can't we? Sure, I knew you would. The voice of the editor speaks. - DG]

FIGURE A


Fredlet and one of the TRG folks with her swank new TRGPro. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Then I set about grilling the folks at TRG about the new toys they have arriving for their new device. There are many. The yummiest by far is the folding keyboard, shown in Figure B.

FIGURE B


A closer look at TRG's folding keyboard. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Another lovely toy I ran across while roaming wild and free through the showroom floor was the MyCorder Data Acquisition System from Datastick Systems. As you can see in Figure C, the Datastick is used for importing analog data into your Palm device (just wait until they have color...oooohhh.).

FIGURE C


Here's someone using the MyCorder Data Acquisition System. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Landware was at PalmSource. They were promoting their marvelous little keyboards for all flavors of Palm computers, with the Handspring model set to show up around December.

Saturn (yes, the car company) was promoting their electric car, which you can see in Figure D, smack dab in the middle of the show. They had a UniMount inside with a charger unit and Palm device ready for use. The best quote of the conference was about the car, "Wow, that's the most expensive Palm recharger I've ever seen." I snickered and walked on.

FIGURE D


Saturn's expensive Palm device recharger. Roll over picture for a larger image.

Noticeably absent were many case manufacturers or startlingly new and wonderful cases. But I suppose, as a self-proclaimed bag lady, I'll never really think there are enough cases around.