You know, if Palm hadn't split into palmOne handling the hardware and PalmSource developing and licensing the operating system and software, we could have done a whole Jekyll-and-Hyde sorta thing with the company's schizoid Mac support in recent months. You might recall that PalmSource announced at a conference in February that it had no plans to develop a Mac version of the Palm Desktop that would work with its upcoming Palm OS 6, so whenever devices using that OS ship, Mac users will have to pony up forty clams for a third-party syncing solution if they want to upgrade to the latest and greatest. That news met with a firm "boo, hiss" from the Palm-using Mac community, who nevertheless glanced at the Palm stock prices and found it frankly amazing that the companies were still in business to develop anything anymore-- so the issue sort of fizzled out.

But with Mac support for the Palm OS platform reportedly relegated to the Dumpster of Investment Capital Past, what's with the sudden flip-flop and the spiffy new palmOne & Macintosh resource center? According to MacMinute, the new mini-site covers "multimedia applications, wireless technology, and tips & tricks" and "specific help under the categories 'Photo Albums & iPhoto,' 'Syncing w/iSync,' 'Go Wireless,' and 'Software.'" It's like they care or something.

Of course, since the company did split, there isn't much to milk from this whole "Jekyll-Hyde" scenario, because it's PalmSource that's allegedly killing Mac support for the Palm platform and it's palmOne that just launched the new Mac mini-site; they're separate entities doing separate deeds. Sigh... all that dramatic potential lost. Well, to take up the slack, we should mention that we've since heard all sorts of whispers that the "no more Mac support" comments were made and/or taken out of context; these whispers insist that while there won't be a port of the traditional Palm Desktop for Macintosh that works with Palm OS 6, PalmSource is rumored to be working with Apple on beefed-up iSync capabilities that'll more than make up for the loss. Consider this heavily unsubstantiated and quite possibly a pipe dream that's sprung forth from the fevered minds of Mac-using Palm enthusiasts, but hey, it's hope, right?

Meanwhile, for those of you who refuse to get a handheld unless it's got an Apple logo on it, may we respectfully direct your attention to NewTen? The odds of Apple ever releasing a new handheld are roughly down there with the likelihood that Steve Jobs will crash the Macworld Expo Boston feature presentation wearing a gorilla suit and attack the panelists with a paint gun (fingers crossed!), but on the other hand, there are plenty of completely nutzoid Newton addicts still writing new software to keep Apple's six-years-buried PDA in a divine state of walking undeath. NewTen, in particular, actually allows the installation of Newton packages onto a MessagePad/eMate natively in Mac OS X without firing up Classic. Wacky? Sure, but nowhere near as insane and magnificent in concept as that Newton plug-in for iTunes from a couple of years back. But someone will top that any day now, you can count on it.

Face it, folks, this platform simply refuses to lie down and stop moving. Say, where'd we put our old MessagePad 100?...