Drivers caught using handheld phones on the road will be fined under a new law aimed at reducing auto accidents in the U.S. Virgin Islands. A first and second offense will carry a fine of between $25-$100 US, while those guilty of a third offense could lose their driver’s license for up to a year.

Gemstar-TV Guide and Handmark announced the availability of TV Guide Mobile, a dynamic new television listings and content service designed for Palm OS handhelds and smartphones. Through a yearly or monthly subscription, TV Guide Mobile provides consumers with the content and personalized tools they need to get the most out of the world of television.

The electronics maker tags urban buildings with black spray-painted images of child consumers absorbed in the handheld. Advertising firms call it genius, but the word on the street is less flattering. Seeking to market its handheld game device to hip city dwellers, Sony has hired graffiti artists in major urban areas to spray-paint buildings with simple, totemic images of kids playing with the gadget. But the guerrilla marketing gambit appears to be drawing scorn from some of the street-savvy hipsters it’s striving to win over.

Rev it up in the ultimate street racing subculture game for your handheld. The gangs, the cars, the girls… it’s adrenaline pumping 3D action all the way as you aim to become the street racing champion. Race over rooftops, perform spectacular jumps and smash through traffic in your pursuit of winning the ultimate performance supercar. Pixelogic is holding a special Christmas promotion for Street Duel: Underground Racing. For a limited time, use the code, HAPPYXMAS, at their online store to bring the cost of the game from $19.99 down to $9.99.

Pocket Video Maker is the ideal program for converting movies for viewing on the Pocket PC. A full length movie can be converted and stored on a 128 MB memory card. Usability has been even more simplified. The wizard menu navigation guides you within a few clicks to your result, without the need to meet complicated settings. Professional users still can access the advanced settings page to change all the parameters for the conversion.

Astraware and Revolution Software have announced the release of Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars for Palm OS handhelds. Broken Sword: Shadow of the Templars is an epic adventure which takes you around the globe in a desperate race to unlock the ancient mysteries of the Knights Templar.

Blackberry customers as well as industry observers remained hopeful but concerned–and largely uninformed–last week following a court ruling that could lead to the shutdown of BlackBerry’s wireless email system in the United States. BlackBerry maker Research In Motion maintains that the company has tested and readied a legal, technical workaround that will keep itself and its customers in business even if a judge rules against the company. But a lack of technical details about the workaround–which RIM refuses to divulge–worries some industry observers.

StashCard is a $10 insert that turns any empty PC Card slot into a tiny storage space. It can be used to hide extra cash, spare memory cards, or just about anything you can squeeze into the slot.

Blue Nomad announced the availability of Nomad Security Suite, a comprehensive data security package, for Palm-powered handhelds and smartphones. The security suite includes RemoveIt for Palm OS, which allows users to identify programs taking up hidden space on their devices and provides an audit trail of files and preferences created by running programs, BackupBuddyVFS Professional which creates quick and secure device backups to external memory cards, and SwordFish for Palm OS which allows users to securely store personal information such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, and passwords.

For Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales, last week was a tough one. And he’s going to change the ground rules for the popular anyone-can-contribute encyclopedia because of it. First, in a Nov. 29 op-ed piece in USA Today, a former administrative assistant to Robert Kennedy lambasted the free online reference work for an article that suggested he may have been involved in the assassinations of both Robert F. Kennedy and John F. Kennedy. Then, on Dec. 1, a new flurry of attention came when former MTV VJ and podcasting pioneer Adam Curry was accused of anonymously editing out references to other people’s seminal podcasting work in an article about the hot new digital medium. To critics of Wikipedia–which, in a spin on the open-source model, lets anyone create and edit entries–the news was further proof that the service has no accountability and no place in the world of serious information gathering.