CNET News.com has an article on the state of the handheld market, which is showing signs of life. Weili Su, senior analyst of IDC’s Smart Handheld Devices research program, is quoted as saying improvements in the economy and new wireless devices could help launch a recovery later this year.

4pockets.com announced the launch of their latest game, Marble Worlds. Guide your Marble through the isometric 3D scenery of Marble Worlds collecting gems as you go. You use features such as bounce pads, air blowers, and jet holes to acheive your goal.

LandWare Inc announced the immediate availability of the 2002 Zagat Restaurant and Nightlife Guide on Palm expansion media for Palm handhelds. You can insert the Zagat Restaurant and Nightlife Card into your handheld’s expansion slot to access reviews, ratings, costs, and features for over 18,000 restaurants in 31 locations.

XcelleNet, Inc. announced the general release of Afaria Sync Manager, the latest addition to its Mobile Infrastructure solution. Afaria Sync Manager is designed to enable organizations to securely extend access to Microsoft Exchange and Lotus Domino, as well as enterprise application data, directly to Palm OS devices used by mobile workers.

XcelleNet, Inc. announced it has acquired Ehand AB, a Swedish software company whose technology links handheld computing devices with corporate business systems. The principal shareholders of Ehand were Telenor Venture and a Pan-European venture capital company, b-business partners, both of which invested in the early stages of Ehand

Handspring, Inc. announced availability of the company’s new integrated wireless products, the Treo 180 and 180g, in Taiwan. Treo will be available at a suggested retail price of NT$22,580 at twenty-one Far EasTone retail stores and IT retail stores nationwide at launch.

Handspring, Inc. and AirPrime Inc. announced that Handspring has selected AirPrime’s Helium 1X embedded module platform to power the future CDMA version of Treo, a compact communicator that combines a mobile phone, wireless applications like email, messaging and Internet browsing, and Palm OS organizer into one device.

Palm Infocenter reports Mergic is in the process of developing the Mergic VPN for Palm OS, a VPN client which allows users to securely access a private network, such as a corporate LAN, from their handhelds.

PDAssistant has been released. It’s a program that converts Outlook-based MDB files to Palm OS-friendly CSV files, and back. It could be useful for anyone that uses Outlook and Palm OS and wants all of Outlook’s fields available on-the-go.

Palm Station reports Palm Digital Media has begun weekend sales of up to 50% off their ebooks.