Apple's PDA, well sort of...

Rumours have been mounting that the shiny translucent computer giant Apple has started manufacturing its own line of hand-held computers using 3Com's Palm operating system.

ZDNet UK has the designs.

Okay, so they're actually our own designs, but we came up with them first so Apple will probably just be copying us anyway.

Information is even emerging from San Francisco suggesting that Apple is already in limited production of Palm based PDA devices.

At the Macworld Expo held in San Francisco recently, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced his opposite number at Palm by saying that Apple had been "doing a lot of work with these guys lately", adding fuel to the rumours.

Although Apple has been co-operating with 3Com for a while now, this does seem to indicate that it may be getting closer to taking the wraps off a PDA in the iMac mould.

ZDNet, sort of, broke the news of a potential collaboration between Apple and Palm back in August in a speculative article on future Apple innovations. The astounding designs that ZDNet's own creative geniuses came up with even featured a colour desktop, which Palm is known to be working on currently.

Our own design also featured some other rather funky features including MP3 functionality, video, audio and modem plug-ins. Even bluetooth connectivity got a mention although it is as yet unclear what Apple's real PDA might feature.

Actually, Apple is refusing to make comment on the rumours concerning a product that has not yet been officially released, and has certainly not confirmed whether decisions to go ahead with an Apple/Palm PDA might have been inspired by ZDNet's own innovative designs.

Perhaps we should have patented the design.

Tell us what you think the Apple PDA should look like and what functionality it should include, by mailing us at the Mailroom