Palm, Inc. has announced its plans to target handheld users in China. Kicking off with the opening of its sales and marketing support office in China and the launch of a full family of products, Palm Solutions Group aims to attract users in China to pick up a Palm handheld. Other announcements to help achieve this goal include the appointment of a key local distributor, the establishment of customer services, and in-country technical support. A distribution center also will be set up in Hong Kong to facilitate the logistics of products throughout the Asia Pacific region.

Air2Web has launched 2IM, an Instant Messaging (IM) solution to integrate popular public and corporate IM services. 2IM is available on Palm hanhelds, RIM wireless handhelds, and Cingular Wireless’ myBiz pagers and will soon be available on other wireless handsets including J2ME devices.

MobiMate announced version 3.0 of its Contacts Pro software. Contacts Pro is a contact-management application for PDAs and cellphones. Fully compatible with the built in address book, Contact Pro allows a user to locate a contact in the address book within a couple of seconds using 2-3 keystrokes, and then dial, SMS, or email that contact immediately. Version 3.0 adds full-screen search list, keyboard and keypad support, keyboard shortcuts, email support on newer devices, and more.

Pocket PC Films announced that their Portable Media Devices unit has formed a joint venture with Pocketainment to market and distribute the Pocket Pix Cartridge, a plug and play adaptor that enables full-length feature films, video, and MP3

Palm, Inc.y introduced the Zire 71 handheld with a built-in digital camera and a sharp high-resolution color screen. It has a U.S. street price of $299. It plays MP3s and video clips as well.

Palm, Inc. introduced a handheld computer with built-in high-speed wireless connectivity: the Palm Tungsten C handheld. As Wi-Fi hotspots become increasingly commonplace in airports, hotels, offices, hospitals, and universities across the nation, Tungsten C handheld users can gain fast wireless access to the Internet, email, messaging, large applications, and other corporate data while traveling or anywhere within their business’ Wi-Fi-enabled network.

The Tungsten C handheld debuts several innovations in design and technology to address what campus networkers want most in a handheld. It is Palm’s first device to ship with integrated Wi-Fi, or 802.11b, for wireless campus connectivity. It offers 64MB of memory to manage data-intensive applications; 400MHz of ARM processing power to reduce wait times for almost any query or application; a 320 x 320 transflective TFT display; and integrated, full-featured business applications, such as VersaMail 2.5 for email, and DataViz Documents To Go for managing Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint compatible documents.

DataViz, Inc announced Beyond Contacts. Beyond Contacts is a Microsoft Outlook companion for the Palm OS.

SplashData has news of SplashMoney 2.92, a free update that adds Budgeting and Reporting; SplashShopper 2.52, another free update and 25% discount; and SplashWallet Suite.

Cutting Edge Software announced Quickoffice Premier, the first Palm OS Office suite to allow you to open native Microsoft Word, Excel, and Powerpoint files directly on your handheld with no synchronization required. It works with most older devices including Palm Vx, Handspring Visor Prism, Palm m505, and m500. Any device running OS 3.5 or later is supported.

MARGI Systems is extending the presentation capabilities of Presenter-to-Go SD to Palm’s new Tungsten C and Zire 71 handhelds. The solution is designed to provide mobile professionals with a lightweight alternative to deliver professional-quality presentations from their Palm Tungsten C or Zire 71 handheld. MARGI Presenter-to-Go SD supports all Palm handhelds that feature the Palm Expansion Slot for SD Cards, SDIO and MultiMediaCard media, and is immediately available for the new Tungsten C and Zire 71 handhelds.