A Taiwanese technology consortium is putting the finishing touches on a new memory card format that it says is compatible with the popular Secure Digital and MultiMediaCard formats already in the market but offers speeds twice that of USB 2.0 at a cheaper price. The Taiwanese card format is dubbed M

DDH Software, developers of the HanDBase relational database program for mobile devices, has just released HanDBase Online Runtime Builder. The new database development tool enables users to create freestanding Windows Desktop PC companions for handheld runtime solutions. The desktop companion offers full support for editing databases, filtering, searching, and browsing, as well as flexible features for importing and exporting data to other file formats. Additionally, customers can interface with DDH Software’s many flexible synchronization conduits to provide bi-directional data synchronization between handheld and desktop, and a myriad of desktop database management systems.

Smart Box Design announced it has launched a version of WordPop! for Windows Mobile devices. The Windows Mobile version features audio and visual effects designed to take advantage of the high-resolution screens and audio capabilities of the latest devices based on Microsoft’s Windows Mobile 2003 platform, such as the Dell Axim, HP iPAQ and Toshiba e-series devices. The company has simultaneously upgraded the Palm OS version with new sound effects and additional words.

An estimated 11,300 laptop computers, 31,400 handheld computers and 200,000 mobile telephones were left in taxis around the world during the last six months, a survey found on Monday. The survey of some 1,000 taxi drivers said that passengers had lost three times more handheld computers in the second half of 2004 than in 2001, when the research by security software company Pointsec was first carried out.

palmOne announced that its chief executive officer, Todd Bradley, has resigned, effective at the end of the quarter. Bradley will remain with the company in an advisory role through May, the end of the fiscal year, to ensure a smooth transition. Ed Colligan, the company’s president, will assume the role of interim CEO while a search is conducted for Bradley’s permanent replacement. Colligan is a candidate for the permanent position.

Electric Pocket announced an update to its recently launched Busker MP3 player for Palm OS PDAs and smartphones. Busker, which enables Palm OS users to play MP3 tunes stored on an SD card, now includes a refined user interface and a new thumbnail graphic on the “Play” screen. The Busker upgrade is free to current licensed users.

PhatWare announced an upgrade to PhatPad, its notes organizer for Microsoft Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs, Tablet and Desktop PCs. The application turns any Windows Mobile-based Pocket PC or Tablet PC into the ultimate notepad. The user can draw pictures, jot text notes, or combine text, drawings and pictures to increase their personal and professional productivity.

Computer hackers have taken to stealing data the easy way–by eavesdropping on phone and email conversations to find the keys to seemingly impregnable networks, security experts say. The danger of attacks with insider information was illustrated earlier this month with the arrest of a California man accused of breaking into mobile phone network T-Mobile’s database and reading emails and files of the U.S. Secret Service, and by the exploits of a hacker who breached a hospital’s database and changed mammogram results.

Since U.S. regulators approved them for medical use last year, implantable identification devices from VeriChip have turned up in some interesting places. The rice grain-sized chips, designed to be injected into the arm’s fatty tissue, can be scanned like a bar code to call up personal information such as name, blood type and medical records. The devices can also be linked to financial information such as credit card numbers and buying habits, which is why a nightclub in Glasgow, Scotland, recently began offering to implant its patrons with the chips.

Wi-Fi now rules the roost, according to a new research report concluding that wireless technology has gained a slight edge over Ethernet cables in home networks. The survey, by research firms Parks Associates, found that 52 percent of U.S. households with a home network were using wireless technology, compared with 50 percent for Ethernet and about 5 percent for power line networking via electrical wires. The numbers don’t add up to 100 because some homes use a combination of technologies.