Yep, this is blantant abuse of editorial access, but hey, they tanked. And to think, as a little Cub Scout, I went to Yankee stadium and thought these men were, well, funny looking guys in those silly suits. I still don’t have no respect. And they don’t got game. Oh well, at least they’re not the Devils. Losing 1 to 3? Puhleeze! — D

Palm, Inc. announced that Palm OS licensee Sony Corporation has deepened its commitment to the Palm Economy and advanced Palm’s objective of creating an independent operating-system company outside of Palm. Sony has made a $20 million minority equity investment in Palm subsidiary PalmSource, Inc. In addition, Sony will expand its business and technical collaboration with PalmSource. Sony now owns approximately 6 percent of PalmSource.

Chapura, Inc. announced that PocketMirror Standard is the synchronization software that will ship with every Palm Zire handheld across the globe. PocketMirror will allow the Zire handheld to synchronize with Microsoft Outlook.

PalmSource and WebLink Wireless announced they are working together to enable wireless email, text messaging, and mobile Internet access via WebLink’s ReFLEX network to wireless messaging devices running Palm OS 5. ReFLEX enables two-way messaging by adding a response channel to a traditional paging system. The messaging and email capabilities provided by the ReFLEX network will enhance the Palm OS’s existing wireless capabilities, which include support for Bluetooth, GSM, CDMA, 2.5G/3G networks and, in Palm OS 5, 802.11 solutions at the system level.

First customer shipment of new versions 3.0 of Datastick Connection and Datastick Connection Plus software as well as Datastick’s newest software product, Datastick Connection Pro v1.0, running on the DAS-1245 data acquisition peripheral for Palm handhelds, was announced by Datastick Systems, Inc. Working through Bluetooth wireless technology or through Datastick DAS-1245 hardware utilizing the Palm Universal Connector, data is acquired, recorded, and displayed from sensors and sensing devices measuring temperature, pressure, vibration, rates of acceleration, etc., on up to four analog channels.

Palm, Inc. announced the Zire handheld, a $99 light-weight handheld designed for the first-time purchaser. It’s the first major introduction to mainstream consumers at the sub-$100 price point. It weighs 3.8 ounces, has a polished white face and silver back, comes with a removable flip lid, and has a 160 x 160 monochrome display screen. One big change is that there are only two hardware buttons, for the Address Book and Date Book.

DreamQuest Software announced Championship 500 is available for Palm OS. Championship 500 allows players to choose from five difficulty levels, dozens of variations, and eight customizable players to sharpen their skills.

There is a new DataGet interface for Mitutoyo gauges is now available. It connects any Mitutoyo gauge to a Palm handheld with a universal connector (which includes the Palm m125, m500, and i705). Measurements are broken into multiple variables and tagged with identifying information. Data is uploaded to Microsoft Excel or text formats on the PC.

CNET News.com reports Palm has notified customers that it plans to stop supporting WeSync, a service for sharing calendar data among numerous handhelds. Meanwhile, Palm has delivered a free program, known as DualDate, that allows two handhelds to share calendar information.

UTrackSys.com, LLC released Universal Tracking System version 1.3 for Palm OS. UTS is designed to allow you to trend any value that can be measured: time, expenses, calories, body weight, etc. The new release has new features designed to make working with entered values easier. They also added the support of national date and time formats and a Spanish version of UTS that has the user interface and manual fully translated into Spanish.