BoxWave announced their Armor Case for the Palm Treo 650. Armor Case for the Palm Treo 650 is a form-fitting, trendy aluminum case that is designed to fit your handheld perfectly. It’s exterior is made of anodized aluminum that is strong yet lightweight, while the interior is padded with a layer of foam for optimal security. It’s designed with a clear plexiglass window that protects your Treo’s screen while allowing you to easily read your display.

Sybase’s iAnywhere released version 5.4 of its XTNDConnect PC mobile device-to-desktop synchronization software. XTNDConnect PC allows users to synchronize contacts, calendars, tasks, email and notes between mobile devices and popular PC applications such as ACT!, Microsoft Outlook, Lotus Notes and Novell Groupwise and it provides great flexibility with support for numerous phones and PDAs and multiple desktop PIMs in many different languages. Version 5.4 adds support for Windows Mobile 5.0 devices, as well as the latest Sony Ericsson models, including the W800i Walkman phone and K750i device.

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office rejected two of five patents at the center of the legal battle that threatens to shutter BlackBerry email service in the United States. This marks three times in the past month and twice in two days that the USPTO has issued a negative ruling on a disputed patent from NTP, the patent-holding company that sued BlackBerry maker Research in Motion Ltd. for patent infringement in 2001. U.S. District Judge James Spencer ruled in favor of NTP in 2003, instructing that RIM halt its sales of BlackBerry devices and services in the United States until NTP’s patents run out in 2012. He stayed the ruling, though, pending appeal. Since then, the case has gone through several appeals, and RIM is trying to take the case to the Supreme Court.

Enpocket and Internet Broadcasting announced a relationship that will create the largest source of local news on the mobile Internet. The new partnership gives consumers of Internet enabled wireless devices access to 32 of Internet Broadcasting’s partner TV stations in major markets such as New York and Los Angeles. The innovative service will be offered directly to consumers and will be promoted by stations both online and on TV.

Nokia plans to issue an update of its 770 Internet Tablet early next year, adding instant messaging and internet telephony to the device that started shipping last November. The company did not disclose which applications it plans to bundle. But Nokia’s director of product management, Olavi Toivainen, said he would favor applications using open standards over proprietary platforms.

The number of people who use their cell phones while driving continued to increase in 2005, according to a government survey released on Thursday. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration survey found that 974,000 vehicles–or 10 percent of those on the road during the day–are driven by someone using either a handheld or hands-free phone. The figure is up from 8 percent in 2004. And the use of cell phones increased among both young and old drivers in 2005, and among both men and women, the survey found.

A Windows-targeted worm that drops spying software on vulnerable PCs is spreading across the Internet, security experts have warned. The Dasher.B worm exploits a flaw in Microsoft Windows Distributed Transaction Coordinator, or MDTC, security companies said Friday. Microsoft announced and patched the hole in the component for transaction processing in October. However, initial glitches with the update may have left some users without a properly implemented fix, Sophos said.

Dell on Friday announced a recall of about 22,000 notebook computer batteries sold in the United States and an additional 13,000 abroad. The 35,000 recalled batteries were sold with several models of Latitude and Inspiron machines and Precision mobile workstations between Oct. 5, 2004, and Oct. 13, 2005. Manufactured in Japan or China, they were also sold on their own as replacement batteries–at a cost of between $99 and $179–during that time. The company has learned of three incidents of the recalled batteries overheating, resulting in damage to a tabletop and a desktop, and in “minor damage to personal effects,” but no reported injuries.

Robots may not be able to do everything humans can, but the latest version of Sony’s humanoid robot has something many people might find useful: a third eye. The Japanese consumer electronics company’s roller-skating robot, Qrio, has now been enlightened with an extra camera eye on its forehead that allows it to see several people at once and focus in on one of them. At an exhibit on intelligent machines in the glitzy shopping district of Ginza on Friday, Sony unveiled the new and improved Qrio, which walked jauntily toward the audience, swinging its hips to music.

The race is on to deliver all-day battery life for notebooks. While Intel believes that Napa platform notebooks can push notebooks to or past an average of 5 hours of battery life in 2006, it’s still shooting for more. The company has said it would like to see standard-issue business notebooks run for 8 hours on a single charge of a standard battery versus today’s average of around four hours.