Visto Corporation has signed an agreement with KPN Mobile to bring wireless email services to KPN customers in the Netherlands. KPN’s Office Mode is Visto’s first wireless email service on the i-mode platform designed to offer mobile email solutions for the enterprise users. OfficeMode uses Visto technology to provide mobile access to existing office email systems, such as Lotus Notes or Microsoft Exchange so mobile users can access email, contacts and calendar from any i-mode enabled handheld device.

Astraware has updated its Noah’s Ark for Palm Powered handhelds, a new conversion of the PopCap Web game classic, that brings all new graphics, a musical score and a whole new puzzle twist to the Bible story. The Ark’s built, and its just started raining, and there are still hundreds of animals to bring in. Tap to match pairs of animals in the confusion, to bring them to the Ark and save them from the rising flood water.

LandWare announced the immediate availability of the Leonard Maltin Movie & Video Guide for Palm Powered Handhelds. LandWare has teamed with Leonard Maltin to produce a mobile companion for anyone looking to buy, watch, rent or merely brush up on movies. The Leonard Maltin Movie & Video Guide offers tools for tracking the films you watch, rent and own. The Leonard Maltin Movie & Video Guide will help maintain cost and purchase details, loan and rental records, technical information, notes and much more.

PC World reports that IBM is extending its DB2 Everyplace database for handheld devices by adapting it for .Net development and offering a special version for small to midsize businesses. The database commonly is used for embedded applications such as sales force automation and medical and retail systems. It runs on devices such as PalmOS, Pocket PC or Symbian units. Version 8 features enhanced application development support for Java through bundling of IBM’s J9 Java Virtual Machine, for improved connectivity to Java databases. A new plug-in for IBM’s WebSphere Studio tool helps developers build sophisticated mobile applications for PalmOS and Pocket PC platforms.

A combination of a plastic material and a thin film of silicon has been demonstrated by researchers at Princeton University and Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) as an inexpensive method of storing digital information. According to InfoWorld, Researchers at Princeton and HP were able to develop a write-once memory cell that can hold gigabytes of information and be produced very inexpensively from a commonly used plastic substance and a small amount of silicon.

In anticipation of this year’s holiday shopping season, a recent survey conducted by AvantGo entirely on personal digital assistants (PDAs) reveals the shopping habits, retail preferences and wish lists of today’s tech-savvy mobile professionals. The new AvantGo survey shows continued growth in online shopping as well as an emerging trend to bring PDAs when shopping in person, making it easier to review gift lists and online product information. Respondents name flat-screen TVs, digital cameras and smartphones as this year’s hot products, and in the spirit of the holidays, 53% list world peace as their number one wish.

Proporta introduced its latest product, the Roll Up Keyboard. The pack includes 3 different connectors making it compatible with leading Palm and iPAQ handhelds. The keyboard measures 230mm x 80mm (9in x 3.14in).

Starting this month, telephone customers in the United States must be allowed to transfer their landline number to a cell phone when signing up for new services, the Federal Communications Commission has ruled. News.com reports that an order issued Monday and supported by all five FCC commissioners requires landline phone companies to make way for what’s called “porting” of phone numbers in the nation’s largest 100 markets beginning November 24. Similar rules affecting customers who switch between cell phone providers also are set to take effect at that time.

In the latest Man vs. Machine series, Garry Kasparov has drawn with X3D Fritz in the first of a four-game chess match. BBC News reports that Kasparov and the programmers agreed on a draw on the 37th move after three hours and 20 minutes of play. In this series, Kasparov has to wear virtual reality glasses, and call out his moves, which are posted on a virtual board.

PC World reports that hackers have cracked the copy protection code of games developed for Nokia’s recently launched N-Gage mobile game console. Earlier this week, a gaming Web site revealed successful hacks of N-Gage games, saying the games could be cracked like an egg.