Bluetooth, a short-range wireless technology, is finally coming of age. After years of standing in the shadows of WiFi, its much broader reaching wireless counterpart, Bluetooth has found its niche: a burgeoning market for wireless phones and headsets.

Nextel Communications is at least a year away from launching national mobile broadband services, the company confirmed this week, making it late to the party compared to rivals such as Verizon Wireless. Nextel spokesman Aaron Radelet on Tuesday said WiMax is not in the running for the carrier’s planned broadband service, citing a lack of appropriate spectrum licenses. Nextel is licensed to provide wireless services in the 1.9Mhz band, whereas WiMax currently uses the 2.5Mhz band.

fun4palm is offering attractive discounts during the month of December. Just visit the fun4palm Advent Calendar daily in December, click on the day number and benefit with the promotion code of the day from the special offer in the fun4palm Shop — save up to 50%.

PDAmill have just updated their new epic role-playing game, Arvale: Journey of Illusion. The new version (1.3) fixes installation and registration bugs and includes minor gameplay fixes. The update is available for free in the online stores selling the game.

C-guys, Inc. announced its 20MB/s SD memory cards. The cards are available in storage capacities of 1GB and 512 MB and are designed to increase data transfer speeds for SD-friendly devices such as digital cameras, PDAs, mobile phones and other portable electronics devices.

Research In Motion (RIM) announced that BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 for Microsoft Exchange and IBM Lotus Domino is now available. BlackBerry Enterprise Server v4.0 offers exceptional manageability, enhanced security and simplified application development. End-users will also benefit from a range of enhancements that improve the overall wireless experience.

Research In Motion (RIM) announced the availability of the new Java Development Environment for BlackBerry v4.0. The new release, which supports J2ME (Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition), provides developers with more flexibility and support when developing applications for BlackBerry through an enhanced Application Programming Interface (API) set, documentation, code samples and applications, new Java Specification Request (JSR) implementations, an improved Integrated Development Environment (IDE) and a new BlackBerry handheld simulator with usability improvements.

Tripod Data Systems’ full-featured new TDS TerraGuide navigation package combines a TDS Recon rugged handheld computer and GPS to display full-color digital topographic maps and nautical charts and allow users to determine their location, plan routes and plot waypoints. The included software displays 3-D terrain views and lets users quickly pan and zoom on maps.

Toshiba’s Digital Products Division introduced the Multimedia Center Audio/USB Hub that allows consumers to easily connect their notebook computers to their home entertainment systems. The Multimedia Center Audio/USB Hub enables users of any notebook computer running Microsoft Windows XP Home, Microsoft Windows XP Pro, and the recently released Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 to play music, movies or games in 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround Sound from home entertainment systems or external PC speakers; play games in full EAX Advanced HD Surround Sound for a realistic 3D audio experience; listen to MP3 play lists on home stereo speakers by connecting the hub to a stereo receiver via a SPDIF coaxial audio cable, and much more.

Shortly after people started receiving their new palmOne Treo 650 from Sprint it became apparent that the new handsets stored fewer applications and less data than earlier palmOne handhelds. To help alleviate customer’s concerns, palmOne has promised to create a system upgrade for the Treo 650, and the also affected Tungsten T5 PDA, so the devices can manage and store data a lot more efficiently. Since this update could take a few months to develop, the company said, in the meantime, it would give a free 128MB Secure Digital card to all Treo 650 owners.