GeoDiscovery announced the release of the Geode, a Springboard module that integrates Internet and Global Positioning System (GPS) technology. Their hope is that it will serve as the ultimate interactive travel guide for users of the Handspring Visor. The Geode will allow users to port information such as topography maps, directions, directories, and weather reports. The company plans to ship the Geode product in late summer, 2000.

Handango announced that the company will sponsor the new McAfee.com Wireless Security Center. Handango will be the exclusive provider of third-party software offered inside the “Software Matchmaker” section of the McAfee.com Wireless Security Center for Palm, Pocket PC, Windows CE, and Symbian devices.

This Planet IT Ask the Experts column by Jacqueline Emigh answers the question: “How does the translation from HTML to presentable information on my Palm work when I’m using AvantGo?”

Information Week has a report from PC Expo on Handspring’s co-founder and chief product officer, Jeff Hawkins’ keynote address. Hawkins alluded to a wireless future in which handheld devices and mobile smart phones would merge. He also revealed that by the end of the year, Handspring will unveil a new version of the Visor that will incorporate a cell phone and a microphone.

According to TechWeb News, BSquare is preparing to ship a software application called EZBeam 1.1 that lets Windows CE-based and Palm OS-based devices exchange data using infrared. The software should work with many Windows CE-based devices, including the wireless handhelds, Symbol 2700 series, Pocket PCs, web-based appliances, and Auto PCs with infrared ports.

Palm, Inc. today announced a product to enable Palm users worldwide to connect wirelessly to the Internet from most Palm handheld computers in use today. The $50 Palm Mobile Internet Kit allows you to connect wirelessly to the Internet using a mobile phone or a Palm-compatible modem. The new kit offers Palm users the same access to Internet content and communication tools that is available today through the Palm VII wireless handheld computer. According to the press release (which is not yet up on the Palm site), availability is “later this year”.

Our intrepid reporters, Heather McDaniel and Steve Niles, are on assignment at PC Expo, braving the heat and meeting and greeting all the participants. Stay tuned for some great reporting straight from the show floor.

IBM Corp. unveiled a new chip that should double the amount of memory in both desktop PCs and handheld devices. The chip acts as an intermediary between the processor and the memory, encoding the data to take up half the space it normally uses. According to IBM, the new Memory eXpansion Technology (MXT) is 10,000 times faster than software-based systems.

Here’s an article explaining why you won’t find many PCs at PC Expo, which starts today in New York. This year, the Expo is not about the PC, but the PC offsprings: handhelds, Internet phones, and other gizmos.

Sony is planning to unveil a prototype of its handheld device utilizing the Palm OS today at PC Expo. According to this article, “By using the Palm operating system, Sony will help Palm cement its role as a leading platform provider for handheld devices and strike a blow to Microsoft’s ambitions for its Pocket PC to become an industry standard.”