CNET News.com reports that while handheld computer sales may be slowing in the United States, there are opportunities for growth exist worldwide, with the biggest opportunities in the Asia-Pacific markets, including China, Japan and Korea.

ActiveSky is conducting a market test for consumer and business applications of interactive streaming video and rich media on wireless devices. The trial, which will test delivery of rich media over low bandwidth connections, is now underway in Tokyo.

Mascot Metropolitan announced the release of PDA Skins, a newly developed carrying case for all PDA’s. PDA Skins allows a user to access their handheld without removing it from the case. It can be used on the waist, slung over the shoulder, or hung from the neck. It drops down to a 90 degree angle for easy viewing for GPS or other field operations.

Palm CEO Carl Yankowski is scheduled to give opening keynote address at TechX NY on Tuesday, June 26, at 10:30 a.m. in the Special Events Hall. The topic will be “Handheld Computing: Grass Roots to Corporate Standard.”

Yahoo has a news item reporting that according to IDC, a global market intelligence and advisory firm, believes the still-strong growth rate is enough to warrant optimism in the handheld market. The company’s new report, “Hand Check: The Smart Handheld Devices Market Forecast and Analysis, 2000-2005,” says worldwide shipments of handhelds increased 88 percent to 13.6 million in 2000, and this year’s increase will be at 43 percent.

CNET News.com reports that the annual PC Expo program has changed its name to TechX NY, which may be a result of the fact that desktop PCs will be a low-priority item at the show, with attention instead going to devices such as PDAs and notebook computers.

Yahoo has an announcement from Belkin Components which introduced a number of new PDA accessories, including the Belkin Universal Portable PDA Keyboard. These Portable PDA Keyboards are full-scale, fold-up keyboards that weigh less than half a pound.

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Multilizer Inc. announced that MULTILIZER Developer Edition 5.0 software, including binary-level localization support for Palm OS applications, is now ready for shipping. The software is designed to provide Palm developers with an enterprise-level solution that enables rapid and easy multi-lingual software production and modification.

Bachmann Software introduced its newest version of PrintBoy, which extends printing support of Palm OS spreadsheets to Solutions In Hand’s MiniCalc spreadsheet application.