(Big thanks to Craig Froehle of MemoWare and Gearbits for contributing the article below. In addition, you can now read an official press release from PalmSource and PalmGear and a BlackMask item speculating that PalmGear may drop PalmReader for the Pocket PC. Then again, maybe not if you go by InfoSyn World.)
Apparently, PalmSource has decided to sell its Palm Digital Media division to PalmGear.com.
The graphic in the upper 
left of the Palm Digital Media website used to say “A Division of PalmSource, Inc.,” whereas it now says “A Division of PalmGear.com.” That logo graphic is pictured to the right, for reference only.
Palm Digital Media started out as PeanutPress, an online e-book publisher and seller. PeanutPress 
was acquired by Palm, Inc. and changed to Palm Digital Media (PDM). PDM then became part of PalmSource when Palm, Inc. split itself into the software (PalmSource) and hardware (PalmOne) halves. PalmGear.com is an aggregator and value-added reseller of software, and now e-books, for Palm OS handhelds.
What this means for e-book readers who are happy and content with using content in the PalmReader format is hard to say at this point. We hope that PalmGear takes this ball and runs all the way to the endzone. Otherwise, e-books just took a major step backward.
The TeleRead take: TeleRead itself has been gung ho on a standard consumer e-book format to reduce the uncertainties now awaiting purchasers of e-books in proprietary formats. Just the same, we’re also interested in the here and now and hope that the changes will be good for those who rely on the Palm format. This presumably isn’t Gemstar II, but a little vigilance will go a long way to make certain that loyal customers don’t suffer. Meanwhile you can check out MemoWare for a big collection of public domain material for Palm PDAs and other platforms. Update: Craig just reminded me that “something like 83 percent” of MemoWare’s content “is Pocket PC compatible and 73 percent of it is EPOC-compatible.” – David Rothman
