GADGETS A Show of Handhelds Over the past two weeks, the three major Palm OS companies have each announced new products. First out of the gate: Handspring, with its $399 Visor Edge, a slim metallic handheld with 8MB of memory that aims to compete against the wildly popular Palm V. The Edge has a thin metal snap-down cover that can be replaced with a backside sleeve for plugging in Springboard modules. Then came Sony’s new CLIE, with new audio and video capabilities and a crisp color display, which arrives in the United States later this year. This week Palm unveils the $399 Palm 500 and $449 505 (the latter has a color screen). These new models look like the Palm V, but add the expandability of Handspring and Sony devices using a postage-stamp-size Secure Digital slot. With these new entries, Palm and its partners are giving the rival Windows CE platform even stiffer competition.
PHONES Diamond Rings Why settle for generic ring tones like “Fur Elise” and “Ring ring” when you can have the theme song from “The Simpsons”? Nokia mobile-phone owners can find many tuneful options free at Web sites like us.yourmobile.com and ringtones.freeservers.com, but these sites can be thin on instructions and often plead ignorance on copyright issues. Pay sites like ringtones.com offer larger selections–and ensure that copyright holders are paid.
GAMES Go for the Gory Clive Barker’s undying (Windows, $45; Electronic Arts, 800-245-4525) combines traditional Quake-style action with a well-penned horror story. You play an expert on the occult named Patrick Galloway, who, upon visiting an ailing WWI comrade in his stately family mansion, discovers a wealth of inexplicable paranormal phenomena. Hordes of undead monsters. Chilling sound effects. Frightfully good fun.
