Handspring and Sony
Handspring and Sony both had a large presence this year at the convention. Alan Kessler, Palm's chief operating officer, mentioned that he was really pleased about the licensing of the Palm OS. I am too, since having options is what's going to keep the idea-people out there coming up with, well, new ideas for the platform.

Handspring had a large pagoda with all sorts of Springboard modules on hand (umm... no pun intended) like the Eyemodule, MP3 players, and GPS modules. More and more people are looking toward developing Springboard modules.

One of the exhibitor booths I visited had only a display for their technology. Doesn't sound too much different from the other booths, right? Well, it was a little out of the ordinary. This was a printer mechanism that they were shopping around to various companies for licensing. There wasn't a price range for it, and they weren't selling it to the public, but they were hoping that Handspring or a module manufacturer would snap up this little beauty for the Visor. I'd love to have a little thermal printer for my Visor. Just think about printing out your business card from your address book for those unenlightened individuals without Palm devices. Or imagine printing out the memo where you took notes at a meeting or printing a map for a tourist from the map application you have for a particular attraction. The possibilities are endless.

Sony's CLIE, pictured in Figure B, is the latest device to use the Palm OS.

FIGURE B

Sony's CLIE utilizes the Palm OS. Click picture for a larger image.

At 4.27 ounces, it's one of the thinner Palm OS-based devices around. But that isn't its most distinctive feature. It uses the Sony memory stick and lets you use a jog dial to access items. True to form, Sony is using only proprietary hardware and completely ignoring all the Mac users out there. They haven't announced any plans to ever support the platform, and, looking at their track record with their other products, they probably won't. Die-hard Sony fans will probably jump on the bandwagon, but I think most others will probably look toward the Palm V again for its sleek design. You can find more information at http://www.sonystyle.com/vaio/clie/default.asp.

XIGMA Style
Of course, I always look for new cases for the Palm stuff whenever I get a chance. I was really happy to see the XIGMA Style with their colorful leather cases for the entire Palm handled line, including the Palm m100. Sadly, they don't have a Web site yet, but these cases are definitely worth watching.

TealMovie
Finally, for those who thought the Palm OS was a flash in the pan with limited uses, I'd like to introduce you to TealMovie, pictured in Figure C.

FIGURE C

TealMovie looks great on a Palm IIIc.

This is a movie player for the Palm OS. It's got smooth playback up to 25 frames per second, high-quality full screen color or grayscale imagery, and synchronized sound playback capability. It looks great. Check it out at http://www.tealpoint.com/softmovi.htm. The drawback for me is that the TealMovie Encoder, which runs under Windows 95/98/2000/NT only, doesn't support the Mac. Maybe we'll be seeing Web sites with Palm movies to download in the future.