Paragon Software (SHDD) announced the 2.0 version release of one of the Arkanoids for Palm OS–AnotherBall game. This release is due to numerous requests from customers asking for a high resolution version of the game. Paragon Software (SHDD) also announced that RifleSLUGs-II is almost ready. This release of RifleSLUGs will have high resolution support and new gameplay: new battle opportunities, new weapons, new maps, and others. The release is scheduled for February.

The Ripple Factory has released HoliDates V2.01, which is designed to let you update your Date Book quickly. When you download and run the HoliDates application on your device, you can choose which individual holidays you want added to your Date Book from the database. HoliDates requires Palm OS 3.1 or higher and is Palm OS 5 compatible. It requires 100K of Ram and runs on all Palm OS hardware.

At Linuxworld, AMD and Metrowerks demonstrated a pre-release version of OpenPDA, a Linux technology-based software platform for the development of PDAs and smart phones running on the AMD Alchemy Solutions Mobile Client Reference Design Kit (RDK).

Qvadis announced the release of version 2.1 of Lexica, a reference viewer, multilingual dictionary, and translator system for Palm OS devices. Lexica 2.1 improves on the current 1.1 release by introducing virtual file system (VFS) compatibility. Lexica reference modules can now be stored on external media, such as MultiMediaCard (MMC) and SecureDigital (SD) expansion cards. The development is especially useful for Lexica Pro users, who can now store all of Qvadis’ most popular language modules–which enable bi-directional translation between English and French, Spanish, German, Italian, and Portuguese–on an expansion card. In addition, Lexica 2.1 includes a number of other features, including Palm OS 5.0 and Tungsten T compatibility, improved bitmap support for high density displays, dictionary auto-sort, flags for modules on expansion cards, and improved menus.

NS BASIC Corporation announced their fourth Palm Programming Contest. This time there are four categories: Enterprise, Games, Open, and Japanese. They welcome all NS Basic/Palm OS programmers to participate in the contest. The prizes are $100 USD in each category. You may enter more than one program, but a program can only be entered in one category. Judging will be by NS Basic’s experts. All judging is arbitrary and final. They will be looking at quality, performance, ease of use, sophistication, and overall coolness.

Last summer, millions of FOX’s “American Idol” viewers chose Kelly Clarkson as the program’s first American Idol, propelling her first single to the top of the pop music charts. Now the hit series is coming back with an all-new cast of unknown hopefuls, and Mobliss, Inc., a wireless media company, will aid in the voting process by powering AT&T Wireless’ text voting application. Text voting allows avid fans to vote for the next “American Idol” from their mobile phones using AT&T Wireless text messaging. This high volume application will be the first major wireless interactive TV tie-in ever seen in the U.S.

No new news, but a bit more detail in this article from the Triangle News Observer.

UTrackSys.com, LLC released Blood Pressure plug-in for Universal Tracking System. UTS Blood Pressure for Palm OS helps you track blood pressure and pulse. It offers various interactive charts, reports, filters, and abilities to export data to UTS database and to MS Excel through UTS conduit.

The software company sfr GmbH in Cologne has released visual Key Palm OS, designed to protect against unauthorized access to your PDA. With visual Key Palm OS, the login is accomplished by touching one or several spots on any graphic in one of the common formats. The position and the order of the spots form a key which serves as identification.

We were just contacted about the disappearance Tuesday evening of Janine Sutphen of Durham, NC. Janine has written a number of articles for both our DominoPower and PalmPower Magazines. While we don’t know Janine personally, our best wishes for a safe return go out to her family. Of course, if anyone has any information that may be of use to Durham Police, please contact them immediately. WRAL has more about this very worrisome situation.