Sony has added another wrinkle in the Palm OS saga with the announcement of two new CLIEs, the PEG-UX50 and PEG-UX40.

The Palm OS 5.2 clamshell handheld is a first in a couple of areas. It is the first Palm OS handheld to include Wi-Fi (802.11b) and Bluetooth, a feature already available in Pocket PCs from Hewlett-Packard with its iPAQ h5000 series, and, unlike other clamshell Palm OS handhelds, is designed to be used in landscape mode rather than vertically. It also has a larger keyboard than in previous CLIEs. The UX40 version only has Bluetooth.

The handheld can open up to be used like a Handheld PC or laptop, or the display can be twisted and turned around and over just like those in the NX Series so it covers the keyboard, allowing the device to be used like a traditional tablet style PDA.

The UX50/UX40's display, which has a 480 x 320 pixel resolution and runs 65,000 colors, the same as other recent CLIEs such as the NX series, measures 3.2 inches, down from 3.8 inches in the NX models. It is designed to be used in landscape mode, as is the virtual graffiti application.

The UX50/UX40, which measures 4 x 3.4 x .7 inches and weighs 6.2 ounces, features a Sony ARM296-based CPU, an on-board Digital Signal Processor (DSP) with 8MB on-chip of memory, and a CXD2230GA graphics accelerator chip. Sony's website said the device can play MPEG video at a staggering (for a handheld) 30 frames per second.

According Sony, the processor varies its frequency from 8MHz to 123MHz depending on how its being used. So it appears if you are reading and eBook you'll get longer battery life as it is a less processor intensive application, while running a video, for example, will probably use the full power of the handheld's CPU.

The handheld includes 32MB of RAM, of which 16MB are available. It also has 29MB of general internal storage space that offers more flexibility than regular memory found in Palm OS devices, so, for example, users can copy over music files and images. An additional 16MB of built-in non-volatile memory is available as backup, helping to prevent data loss when the battery looses too much juice. Of course, it also includes a Memory Stick slot. It also has a built-in .33 megapixel digital camera for video and pictures.

As for battery life, specifications state it should last for 14 days if used around a half-hour a day. It should also play audio files for 35 hours and run with its Wi-Fi feature activated for 11 hours. Extended battery packs will be made available.