Tuxtops

MobileReview.com shows up the new Palm PDAs to be released in 20 days from now. The Tungsten X lacks a microphone (default on all PPCs), and the Z22 lacks an IrDA port, a speaker, an SD slot and consequently a headphone jack. The TX seems fairly priced & featured but the Z22 could do so much more for only a few more dollars (for about $10 more).

A run of 100 Linux-powered humanoid robots goes on sale in Japan Friday, priced at 1.5M Yen (about $14,000), not including 10,000 Yen (~$90) monthly service fees. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries conceived of Wakamuru as a pleasant companion offering a range of electronic-age valet services, it says.

It's not a secret anymore than the rumors about the Windows Mobile 5 powered Treo is real. Unfortunately, its screen is indeed only 240x240, and not 240x320, which will make a LOT of Windows Mobile application to either not run at all, or run with long scrollbars. A pitty really.

Fujitsu-Siemens prepares 4 new PPCs with Windows Mobile 5, one of them has GPS and another is a quad-band phone.

The handheld computer market is dead. Sales of traditional PDAs are tanking, the market is shrinking, and smartphones are the wave of the future. Well, not quite.

Is it the photographer or the camera to blame for sucky pictures taken with cheaper digicams? This article reviews a $70 2MP camera which in the hands of an experienced hobbyist photographer delivers amazing-looking pictures.

CalliGrapher 8.0 is the new version of popular handwriting recognition software for Windows Powered Pocket PCs. Most notable new features include support for Windows Mobile 5.0, a new soft input panel called Write Pad and the Statistical Analyzer. Reviews here and here.

Dell released the x51 series which involve 3 models: a VGA 624 Mhz, a 520 Mhz QVGA and a 416 Mhz QVGA (no wifi). The high-end model, x51v, is identical to its predecessesor x50v, except the Windows Mobile 5 OS (which saves more than 20% of battery life) and 256 MBs of ROM storage instead of 128 MB. Reviews here, here, here and here.

Back on the 7th of September Motorola and Apple jointly introduced the new Motorola ROKR E1 - the world's first phone with iTunes support built-in. Based on the rock-solid E398, the E1 has a lot to offer.

Sharp Japan has given US-based Linux PDA fans one more reason to wish the dollar could hold its own against the Yen. The newly shipping (in Japan only) SL-C3100 is the second harddrive-equipped Zaurus model, and it also features English-language software aimed at Japanese students.