PalmInfocenter has a posting from Ed Hardy stating that the MyPalm Web portal is going to shut down on January 10, and all PIM data will be permanently deleted. However, subscribers to the Palm.Net wireless service will still be able to access their Web email and Palm.Net accounts.

Metaworks announced the signing of a contract for the roll out of its flagship solution, Mantis with A.S. May Powell Corporation, an Ontario-based National Food Broker. Developed for brokers, manufacturers, and sales agents in the Consumer Packaged Goods industry, Mantis is a data collection and reporting system based upon handheld, wireless, and Internet technologies.

It is with sadness that we mark the death of Mary Kay Ash, founder of the Mary Kay Cosmetics dynasty. Mary Kay Inc. grew from a sales force of 11 in 1963 to more than 750,000 in 37 countries and wholesale revenue of $1.3 billion last year and Mary Kay Ash was one of the most well-known women business leaders of the last quarter century. We write about Ash because she did some amazing things with her life and because she had a profound impact on the world of sales and marketing. Our best wishes go out to her family.

Michael Perry, co-founder of Metaworks Inc., is stepping down as Chief Executive Officer after two years. After securing the company’s final round of external financing last week, which had been Perry’s key focus for the past year, he has decided to step aside so the company can move forward under new leadership. Although Perry is departing the company’s day-to-day operations, he will continue working with Metaworks in an advisory capacity.

Metaworks announced the close of the company’s final round of external financing. After closing an investment round earlier this year, the company had been working to secure long term financing that would ensure the financial stability of the company. As a result, Metaworks has closed a multi staged financing commitment from a privately held holding company.

Palm Boulevard reports Zap Link e-services kiosks are being installed in select Circle K stores in a trial run of their plan to provide wireless Infrared connectivity. Users simply point the Infrared port of their device towards the Clarinet Systems EthIR Beam located inside the kiosk to be connected.

Blue Squirrel announced BluePaste, designed to make the current way of transferring information from a PC to your Palm handheld quicker and simpler. Users select text, from various applications including, email, Word documents, spreadsheets, Web pages, etc. and press Fll. Then BluePaste captures the information, and the next time a user performs a HotSync, it converts the text to a Palm Memo or Pam OS document and transfers the files to a Palm OS device.

CNET News.com reports Palm is expected to announce significant layoffs as soon as next week. According to the article, the exact number of jobs to be cut and the timing of the announcement will be influenced by sales during the last two weeks of November, which marks the end of the company’s fiscal second quarter.

Pogo! Products launched their first product to the consumer market, the DataQuake Springboard module. Available in 8MB and 16MB versions, the DataQuake provides memory expansion with silent alarm functionality for the Handspring Visor. It also includes vibration and a flashing LED to add the illusion of rumbles, thuds, and explosions to games.

Palm, Inc. announced an agreement to distribute the HarperCollins PerfectBound line of ebooks through Palm Digital Media. PerfectBound, the ebook imprint of HarperCollins, publishes a diverse list of titles by award-winning and critically acclaimed authors. Among the PerfectBound offerings available immediately from Palm Digital Media are ebooks by Geoffrey A. Moore, whose blockbuster books on high-tech selling, investing and strategy have sold more than 675,000 copies. The ebooks offered by Palm Digital Media include Moore’s “Crossing the Chasm,” “Inside the Tornado,” and “The Gorilla Game.”