If you have a Windows Mobile or Palm OS device, chances are you already know the name “Ilium Software“. The folks there have been making great software for mobile devices there for 11 years today! With handhelds hitting the mainstream long after the first computers, that’s like 77 in mobile-years. OK, and dog-years too… just go with it…To celebrate their eleventh birthday, Ilium is holding a contest each day this week. Aside from great software prizes, there are $121 Amazon Gift Cards up from grabs. Note that 11 squared is 121… slick, and I can’t wait until their 20th birthday if they keep that trend going. Even if you don’t win a contest this week, you can still score a great software deal on eWallet, ListPro, NewsBreak and more because: at this link, all Ilium software products are 55% off this week. You can’t lose! Best wishes from us to you, Ilium!

This is timely since folks were just debating the merits of a PDA vs. a smartphone the other day. You can go old school and get a good deal in the process if you hit the Palm store. The deal is: buy a Palm TX and you’ll get a Palm Z22 for free. The $299 TX offers integrated WiFi and Bluetooth for use on a color half-VGA screen (320 x 480). There’s 128 MB of internal storage and an SD card slot for more.The entry-level Z22 PDA would normally cost you $99 and would make a nice introductory PDA for someone new to the mobile space. Actually, I think this whole idea was stolen from my OPDAPC idea earlier this week: remember “one PDA per child?”(via Palm Infocenter)

There aren’t too many pure PDAs left in the market since everyone is jamming cellphone capabilities in handhelds these days. Actually, that’s a poor choice of words… “jamming cellphone capabilities” is technically illegal, but you all know what I meant. HP continues to soldier on in the remaining market for PDAs, which is likely served today by the enterprise; at least until the OPDAPC, or One PDA Per Child project gains traction.So what’s HP up to in the PDA space? Plenty based on Brighthand’s review of the iPAQ 210. The device reminds me of my ol’ Dell Axim X51v with the large VGA screen in many ways, but there’s a few odds and ends that are improved. Instead of just a single card slot like many older PDAs had, the 210 can handle both Compact Flash and SDHC for example. If you’re in the market for a Windows Mobile 6 PDA without the phone and you’ve got around $400 to drop, I think the iPAQ 210 has to be on your short-list of potential devices.

DataViz announced a point upgrade to Documents to Go for the Palm OS today; the old v10.001 becomes 10.002 as of today. There’s a revision history of Documents to Go available, but I don’t see the details of the new version just yet. The biggest upgrade however, has to be support for document creation and editing of Office 2007 artifacts like Word, Excel and PowerPoint docs. From my recollection, the prior version only supported document viewing; if I’m incorrect, someone can lend and hand and point out the inadvertent error.If you purchased the prior version (10.001), you’re eligible for a free upgrade from DataViz. Got an older version on your Palm OS device? You can grab the Premium Edition of this version for $29.99. New users can download a free trial and decide if the full price of $49.99 is worth it.

The market for non-phone PDAs continues to decline, but that doesn’t mean new products won’t impress. After watching the Pocket PC Thoughts video unboxing and overview, I think HP has a nice product in their iPAQ 100 series device. Nice enough to turn the tide towards phone-integrated devices? No, but for folks that don’t want the phone, this looks to be a solid offering. The device has the same rubberized feel that I like on my Dash and the screen looks very generous in size; it takes up about 80% of the front face. The iPAQ looks to be as thin as the Dash and iPhone as well, yet it’s crammed with WiFi, Bluetooth a 3.5mm headset jack and a full sized SD card slot. Combine all that with a zippy 624 MHz CPU and it’s a solid little package. Literally solid. You can tell when Jason drops it accidentally and it keeps on tickin’!

The PDA market just can’t catch a break. First, they all seem to be getting replaced by those new-fangled smartphones and now, the latest and greatest models are getting delayed. While this won’t come as a major surprise to our regular readers since we broke news that the HP iPAQ 210 delivery dates were in question, there’s a little more info to share.
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Don’t forget this is the first year we’ve had in quite a while (ever?) where the Daylight Savings Time start and end dates were changed. DST started earlier and ends this weekend, which is later than usual; I’m sure that Ben Franklin and William Willett are smiling down on us right now. Or maybe they were an hour ago?Palm owners will can make sure they’re not losing an hour of light by reviewing the information at the Official Palm Blog. There are links for both Palm OS and Windows Mobile devices; chances are you’ve already got the update from the pre-DST time frame, but if you missed it, now’s the time… and now you know why you’ve been an hour late to every appointment since springtime.

We heard about HP’s triumphant return to the iPAQ PDA line back in September and expected to see devices getting delivered sometime this month. But something’s up in iPAQ-land and it might not be good if you wanted one of these babies sooner rather than later:

• jkOTR reader Roger just pinged me via e-mail saying: "I had ordered the IPaq 210 a few weeks ago. Today an HP rep called and said that all 110 and 210 orders were being canceled and that the IPaq’s would be delayed until possibly "the first quarter of next year or later".
• "I noticed a similar comment on Engadget: "I called HP today and they told me the 110 and 210 will not be released until sometime in November."
• I did a standard Google search for "HP iPAQ 210", clicked the first HP store link and got the "Coming in 2008!" screenclip shown for the 210. Hmm…

Have any other readers heard about shipping dates moving or had an order canceled? Can anyone from HP shed some light? Folks are excited about the new devices; it would be a shame to see the momentum get slowed down…

Craving a rugged Windows Mobile device, but don’t have $1,699 to pony up for the Trimble Nomad? Have no fear, the Trimble Recon line is here. And only a penny less than a cool grand after a $300 price reduction across the Recon line. All Recon devices feature Windows Mobile 5; the 200X drops the processor down to a cool 200 MHz but it can take the heat since it meets MIL-STD-810F standards for extreme temps, drops and vibration. Need faster speeds? The 400X ups the CPU to….wait for it….400 MHz and starts out at $1,199. Both units have options to add integrated Bluetooth and WiFi and each does provide an outdoor viewable, reflective TFT display. Additional options are availble through the not one, but two CF slots, so you might want to dig up those old WiFi compact flash cards. Specialized devices to be sure, but I’m betting there’s a firefighter or mountaineer that could benefit. Hey, what’s with the button that looks like a Mac power switch?

Oki Electric has developed a middleware iris scanning and recognition solution that can be used on various smartphones and PDAs. No extra fancy equipment is needed as Oki’s solution can use fairly standard components: a 1-megapixel camera and a mobile CPU with a 220 MHz clock speed will do. This type of biometric recognition can be used to unlock a device without adding extra hardware like a fingerprint reader. Don’t expect to see this technology integrated until next year when it could be available across Windows Mobile, Windows XP and Symbian S60 devices.

(via Windows For Devices)