Palm has announced that the Treo 650 smartphone is now available in Columbia through Comcel, a leading cellular operator. Palm has recently launched the Treo 650 smartphone throughout the region. The Treo 650 is an “all-in-one” quad-band smartphone specially designed to operate with EDGE network operators (Enhanced Data for Global Evolution).

Pacific Design announced a new addition to its line of carrying cases, the Rolling Lite. The new case is one of the lightest and most compact cases available. The Rolling Lite weighs less than five pounds and is equipped with inline skate wheels and ergonomic handles, making it ideal for the mobile professional. Its compact design also makes an ideal carry-on item, fitting easily in overhead compartments or under airline seats.

DDH Software announced that a new version of its HanDBase relational database application is now available to owners of Windows Mobile-based Smartphones, such as the popular i-mate SP3, Motorola MPX220 and Q phone, and the Samsung i600. With the HanDBase Desktop application, users can design their own databases from scratch or start from any of the thousands of free applets available–all of which have been created and submitted by HanDBase users. Users can transfer the database to the Smartphone handset for convenient handheld access and data entry. Beyond its full-featured editing and design capabilities, HanDBase Desktop allows users to export files in Excel, Word, CSV, HTML or XML formats.

Skyscape announced the release of “Stedman’s Medical Dictionary, NEW 28th Edition” formatted specially for PDAs and smartphones. Stedman’s Medical Dictionary offers quick access to thousands of medical terms, drug names, eponyms, procedures and protocols. Thoroughly reviewed and updated, the 28th edition contains more than 107,000 total terms.

A wide-scale shutdown of the Blackberry mobile email service has gotten closer as the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday turned down a request to review a major patent-infringement ruling against Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry email device. The court rejected a petition by Research In Motion to review a federal appeals court ruling that could lead to a shutdown of most U.S. Blackberry sales and service.

As thousands of Sundance Film Festival-goers lined up Saturday to see independent films on the big screen, a couple hundred piled into a room to talk about the little screen. New mobile technologies like the video iPod and cell phones with video capability have already created demand for bite-size content. But many wonder whether such devices will become conventional outlets for film distribution, and whether consumers will watch such content on a small screen. The answer to both questions is yes, at least according to a panel of executives in the emerging mobile content industry. And they seemed to agree that the viewing of mobile content won’t take the place of regular TV watching or movie-going. Rather, it’s something consumers will use while riding a train or waiting in line at the DMV.

Research In Motion is showcasing the upcoming BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 for IBM Lotus Domino at Lotusphere 2006 this week in Orlando, Florida. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1, a substantial upgrade to RIM’s secure, reliable and proven wireless server software, will add support for IBM Lotus Sametime and IBM Lotus Domino 7, the latest version of IBM’s leading collaboration and enterprise management messaging software. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.1 will provide further integration with Lotus Notes and Domino including the ability to read Notes native encrypted mail (Lotus Domino encrypted mail) on BlackBerry handheld devices, support for IBM DB2, and a new IBM Lotus Sametime client for BlackBerry handheld devices that supports presence, group chat, “buddy list” synchronization with the Sametime server, message auditing and enterprise access controls.

A small start-up says it has technology that will allow mobile operators to deliver large volumes of live TV over their existing 3G wireless spectrum. IPWireless announced the technology, called TDtv, claiming it provides enough capacity over existing 3G spectrum so that mobile carriers won’t have to rely on separate overlay networks to carry live TV programming, which use up relatively large amounts of bandwidth. Though mobile operators around the world have spent billions of dollars over the last few years building new 3G wireless networks in order to deliver new services, experts say their networks are not equipped to handle high volumes of live TV traffic.

Several Trojan horses that target mobile phones have been discovered since the start of the year, but the threat level remains low. Symantec, which sells software to protect mobile devices, has since the beginning of the month identified nine new Trojan horses that target the Symbian operating system. The pests crash phones, attempt to install other malicious software or try to wirelessly transmit personal data to other gadgets, according to Symantec. Symbian OS is the most popular operating system for smart phones, including those sold by market leader Nokia.

This month, Editor-in-Chief David Gewirtz had the opportunity to conduct a follow-up interview with Wade Callison, discussing many of the more scary aspects of identity theft — and what you can do to protect yourself. This is a must read interview.

Read this Computing Unplugged article.