Palm Boulevard has an article on Samsung’s Palm OS smartphone which it says raises the bar on design. According to the article, nearly all of the major hardware companies have or are planning to have competing models out in the next year.

Handspring, Inc. announced the public offering of 7,000,000 shares of its common stock at a price to the public of $5.50 per share. The common stock was offered under the Handspring shelf registration statement that was declared effective by the SEC on December 12, 2001. The offering was sole managed by Credit Suisse First Boston.

Palm, Inc. reported revenues of $290.6 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2002, ended November 30, down 44 percent from the $522.2 million reported for the same period last year, but up 36 percent from the $214.3 million reported in the preceding fiscal quarter.

Palm, Inc. announced that it will appeal the decision of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of New York issued December 20. The decision held that Palm’s Graffiti handwriting-recognition technology infringes a U.S. patent held by Xerox Corporation.

“We assert that the Graffiti handwriting technology does not infringe the Xerox patent and that Palm has strong arguments to support its defense,” said Eric Benhamou, chairman and chief executive officer of Palm, Inc. “Palm will defend itself vigorously and does not intend for this litigation to affect its business strategy or business model nor that of its licensees.”

Palm developer Robert Jen has just released a new multiple choice trivia module for Triv, a trivia game for Palm handhelds. Xmas Xtra contains over 100 Christmas, Hanukkah, and other trivia questions and comes in both multiple choice and short-answer versions. Unregistered users of Triv have free access to the first 36 questions in each of 40 available modules (that’s 1,440 questions), while registered users can feast on over 17,000 trivia questions.

Electric Pocket Limited announced BugMe! Office, a new version of its BugMe! application that includes a series of stationery templates enabling mobile professionals to easily enhance the style and impact of their handwritten notes and reminders.

CNET News.com has an article on Palm’s announcement that it has chosen chipmaker Texas Instruments to power its next generation of wireless handhelds.

Air2Web announced that BellSouth has used the Air2Web Mobile Internet Platform to add wireless capabilities to its e-Platform Services. For BellSouth customers, this agreement provides mobile access to applications and enterprise data.

Electric Pocket Limited of Wales, UK and Handango of Hurst, Texas announced that CompUSA stores nationwide have begun stocking Electric Pocket’s BugMe! note-taking and reminder alarm application for the Palm OS.

Just in time for Christmas, Palm OS developer Robert Jen announced a new Christmas Complete songbook for BabyMelodyPilot. The complete lyrics (all the verses you know plus more that you don’t) to 19 holiday classics are presented karaoke-style for your caroling pleasure. This songbook alone plays for over half an hour.