SanDisk broadened its solid state drive product line for the portable computer market with the introduction of a 32GB 2.5-inch Serial ATA interface model, compatible with most mainstream notebook designs. Coming just two months after SanDisk introduced a 1.8-inch SSD for ultraportable notebooks, the 2.5-inch SSD is now available to PC manufacturers as a drop-in replacement for hard disk drives.

The vast majority of notebook computers manufactured today use 2.5-inch hard disk drives. The SanDisk 2.5-inch SSD fits in the same internal slot as 2.5-inch hard disks, so notebook manufacturers can switch to the SanDisk SSD without altering their hardware designs.

Palm and Iusacell announced availability of the Treo 700p smartphone on the Iusacell network in Mexico. The Treo 700p offers hardware and software innovations centered around usability, connectivity, multimedia and compatibility, designed to take advantage of the fast data speeds of the Iusacell network.

With its new SplashNotes, SplashData offers a software tool aimed at helping people outline and organize everything from work projects, meeting agendas and speeches to class notes and event plans.

SplashNotes is a powerful note taker, list manager, outliner and information organizer for Palm handhelds and smartphones, including Treo, Zire and Tungsten models. It comes with companion Windows software that enables users to enter their notes on a desktop computer and then synchronize the notes with a Palm handheld to take with them wherever they go.

Proporta has released their trademark Alu-Leather case, in both book and flip style, for the HP iPAQ rx5000 series. Proporta has also released their Advanced Screen Protector for the iPAQ rx5000 series.

Seagate announced the first manufacturer to sell laptop PCs with its new built-in encryption technology.

The hard drives, to be available in laptops made by ASI Computer Technologies, will include a chip that makes it impossible for anyone to read data off the disk, or even boot up a PC, without some form of authentication.

Flycell, a mobile and online media and entertainment destination, has formed Flycell Productions to develop, produce and co-produce digital entertainment for distribution over multiple media platforms, including mobile and online.

Flycell Productions has reached a development agreement with the partners of Ensemble Development, Tony To and Patrick Murray. This deal initially calls for Ensemble to develop five scripts in 2007 each which can then be used as seven three-minute mobisodes.

Each of Flycell’s programs will be supplemented with online content to enrich the viewing experience.

Palm announced the availability of the Treo 700wx smartphone on the Centennial network in Puerto Rico.

The touch-screen enabled Treo 700wx combines a great mobile phone, comprising all the functionality and ease of use for which Treo smartphones are known, with the power and security of Windows Mobile 5.0 favored by many businesses. The Treo 700wx on the Centennial network complements the Treo 650 smartphone running on the Palm OS platform, offering more choices to Centennial customers.

Resco has released Resco Neeews! for Palm OS–a user-friendly newsreader built specifically for mobile users. The program has a number of unique features that make setting up feeds and news sources a simple process.

Resco Neeews! has over 350 feeds built in, provides feed searching and can auto extract a feed from a Web site. Another feature allows you to define customized “newspapers” from a selected list of feeds, and lets you view items in a river of news style layout. You can also make launcher icons for your newspapers.

A number of reports indicated Microsoft would give Windows Mobile 6 away for free to licensees who want to offer platform upgrades to customers. It turns out this is incorrect.

While licensing fees can vary from vendor to vendor, a Microsoft representative recently explained the company would not make its latest mobile operating system (OS) available for free across the board.

Stephen Amontis answers one of the old, classic computer questions: should you turn your computer off at night?

Read this Computing Unplugged article.