PalmSource, Inc. and Sony Ericsson announced their plans surrounding optimization of the Bluetooth interoperability between Sony Ericsson mobile phones and Palm OS mobile devices. The companies released the news at the Cellular Telecommunications Internet Association (CTIA) in Las Vegas. The two companies plan to work closely together to enable out-of-the-box compatibility between Bluetooth-enabled Sony Ericsson mobile phones and Palm OS handhelds.

Palm Inc.’s Solutions Group announced its investment in and strategic relationship with a new content publishing company. Mobile Digital Media, Inc. is chartered with accelerating the development of content for SD and MultiMediaCard media. It will aggregate, publish and distribute software for handhelds and mobile phones. The new company is funded jointly by Palm and a group of private investors with extensive publishing experience, and is led by an experienced management team. Barry Cottle, previously Palm’s chief operating officer and head of its Content and Access business unit, is chief executive officer. Former Palm Chief Marketing Officer Satjiv Chahil has been named chairman of the board. Palm believes Mobile Digital Media’s established momentum in an emerging business and its single focus will help it succeed quickly.

CNET News.com has an article on Palm’s announcement that it is taking a minority stake in Mobile Digital Media, which will produce software for the memory cards used in Palm and other handhelds.

A full version of PalmWars has been released. PalmWars is a Realtime Strategy game for the Palm OS. You scan the terrain for resources, build a village, gain power, train an army, conquer terrain, build weapon-factories and Shipyards, and defend your village in an attempt to win the war. PalmWars full version features advanced city-defense systems, strong weapons, nasty Artificial Intelligence, and numerous strategic levels.

Saunders, manufacturer and marketer of the RhinoSkin brand of protective cases for mobile technologies, has entered into a strategic partnership with StuffBak of Niwot, CO, the nation’s largest loss protection service provider. StuffBak ID labels will be included with all RhinoSkin cases, providing an easy way for lost cases and the devices in them to be returned to their owners.

Palm Infocenter has a review of Nisqually from Astraware. According to the article, the goal of the game is to remove lines of three or more so you clear the board of enough pieces to move onward.

iNDUSTRY entertainment has just released a quantity of screenshots from their upcoming game for Palm OS handhelds, called MONSTA. You can check out the screenshots until the game comes out. The game is expected to be released next month.

XcelleNet, Inc. announced that during the past month Intel, Verizon IT, Computer Associates, and Fujitsu PC Corp. have all selected XcelleNet’s mobile infrastructure technology as part of their mobile solutions. Intel has selected XcelleNet’s mobile infrastructure technology as the foundation of its recently announced LANDesk Mobile Manager product. Computer Associates has certified XcelleNet’s Afaria as “ca smart with Unicenter,” the family of infrastructure management solutions from Computer Associates International, Inc. Verizon IT will use XcelleNet’s mobile infrastructure technology to power its broad range of managed mobile services that enable enterprises to effectively deploy, administer, and manage mobile computing devices and remote end-users. Fujitsu PC Corporation has formed a strategic joint-sales relationship with XcelleNet where Fujitsu will pre-install XcelleNet’s Afaria on all Fujitsu Stylistic and PenCentra pen tablet PCs used during sales evaluation.

Palm Digital Media announced it has licensed its Palm Retail Encryption Server Software to two German Internet retailers. The companies intend to mirror the success of Palm Digital Media in the U.S. by creating and distributing ebooks of best-selling titles from leading book publishers. The agreements allow envi.con KG of Berlin and mukom, e.K. of Offenburg to create Internet bookstores offering German language editions of Palm Reader ebooks protected by Palm Digital Media’s digital rights management technology.

ICICI Bank, India’s largest private sector bank, has contracted with Air2Web India to use their Mobile Internet Platform to provide ICICI Bank customers with wireless access to their banking and credit card accounts. Initially, ICICI Bank customers will be able to receive alerts via Air2Web’s 2Notify technology on their Short Message Service phones (SMS), which will give them their checking account and credit card balances. The second phase of the project will allow ICICI Bank customers to access their checking account balance, receive a statement of their account, order check books, and access customer service agents. With credit card accounts, they will be able to pull up available credit, payment details, payment status, and request a mini statement, as well as access customer service representatives.