DataViz announced its mobile ActiveSync client, RoadSync, and mobile Office suite, Documents To Go, will support the Nokia 9300 smartphone and Nokia 9500 Communicator running Symbian OS-based Series 80. With the addition of this newly supported platform, DataViz’ mobile Office portfolio will include support for three of the most popular smartphone platforms: Symbian OS-based UIQ, Series 80, and Palm OS.

Skyscape announced agreements to provide its solutions to the faculty and students of a dozen leading nursing schools around the U.S. Under the wide-ranging agreements, the nursing schools will either distribute free or substantially-discounted Skyscape mobile medical references to their students and instructors. Loaded onto PDAs, Skyscape’s references enable users to access continuously up-to-date and cross-indexed medical references quickly and accurately–and leave many traditional textbooks on the shelf.

SonLight Software has officially released New Yanoff version 3.1, the premiere portable news reader for Palm OS. New Yanoff is an online/offline Usenet NNTP news reader for Palm OS-compatible PDAs. New Yanoff is offered in two versions: Yanoff- and Yanoff+. Yanoff- is the freeware version, Yanoff+ is the advanced commercial version which contains everything found in Yanoff, plus much more.

Real Networks released a widespread patch for vulnerabilities in its media players RealPlayer and Helix Player. The move comes several days after the public release of code taking advantage of the security holes. The update addresses flaws in RealPlayer version 10.0.5.756 Gold and Helix Player 1.0.5.757 Gold running on Linux or Unix operating systems.

Sony is engaged in a tug-of-war with hackers who keep cracking its PlayStation Portable software to unlock the device and run their own applications on it. The company is preparing another update to the PSP firmware to fix a recently disclosed bug that lets hackers downgrade the PSP system software and run their own, so-called home-brew code on the device.

As if fulfilling a child’s fantasy, 43 robotic vehicles began racing around the California Speedway in a government-sponsored test of artificially intelligent machines. The winner will take home $2 million. The race is the second annual DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) Grand Challenge, a U.S. military-sponsored desert race that tests the endurance of robots. It’s a challenge that taps the creativity, brain power, and funds of U.S. universities and private-sector visionaries as the military tries to push the envelope of artificial-intelligence technology.

Paramount Home Entertainment is the latest company to back the Blu-ray Disc format as the next-generation DVD standard. Paramount said Sunday it will join a growing list of media and technology companies endorsing Blu-ray that includes Sony, Apple Computer, Hewlett-Packard, and Dell. Paramount will still market all its DVD movies in the competing HD DVD format so consumers can have a choice, company officials said.

After quietly heating up over recent months, the battle over next-generation DVD formats boiled over as Dell and Hewlett-Packard assailed Intel and Microsoft, which have lined up in the opposite camp. Microsoft and Intel announced that they were backing the HD-DVD format, saying its approach will spur easier home networking of movies and make it simpler to distribute hybrid discs containing both high-definition and traditional DVD movies. Dell and HP shot back, saying the world’s largest software and processor makers were spreading “inaccurate” information. They also reiterated their backing for the rival Blu-ray format.

Even as device makers rush to introduce their latest handheld devices at the ongoing CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment 2005 conference, new research indicates that a significant obstacle to the growth of mobile services may be sitting in the palm of their hands. According to a study, most consumers would be willing to utilize more data-oriented mobile services if the keyboards on their handheld devices weren’t so impossibly cramped. The study found that adoption of wireless activities such as text messaging, picture messaging, Web surfing, phone personalization, and gaming remain bogged down by frustration with digit-challenging handheld interfaces.

Jataayu Software, vendor of mobile device solutions, announced it has joined the Mobilinux Open Framework Partner Program. MontaVista’s Mobilinux Open Framework is a program designed to increase the adoption of Linux within the mobile phone industry by providing handset vendors and mobile operators with solutions consisting of components from best of breed mobile software providers and MontaVista’s Mobilinux OS platform. The primary goal of this program is to provide mobile handset vendors and operators with the architectural freedom to create and deliver differentiated products and services. Through this program, mobile handset vendors are enabled to build and ship devices featuring the latest technologies more quickly and more efficiently, while reducing overall development costs.