Patently Absurd

The Register reports that RIM has been granted a patent on a "handheld wireless email device" with a thumb keyboard. 24 hours after getting the patent, RIM filed against Handspring, claiming that the Treo is infringing technology. The language of the patent is fairly broad, and might be ultimately unenforceable, but geez. Does this mean that an iPAQ 5000 with GPRS and a SnapNType keyboard is infringing, too?

New Palms

c|net reports that Palm will release three new models in October. One will be a low-end, $100 starter PDA that Palm plans to market to retail outlets that haven't traditionally carried PDAs. One will be a Dragonball-based, OS 4.1 communicator with GSM voice and GPRS data (Palm's version of the T-Mobile?) and the last will be a completely redesigned, ARM-based, OS 5 device with Bluetooth support.