The North American Numbering Plan Administration fund grew $301,000 to $2.9 million in the reporting period from April to June, the body said Tuesday. Since October 2007, the fund has grown $669,000. Including accounts payable, accrued expenses and deferred revenue, the fund had more than $5.75 million at midyear.

The U.S. Census Bureau's final rule, which requires the filing of export information through the Automated Export System or AESDirect, for all shipments where a Shipper's Export Declaration (SED) is currently required, etc., took effect on July 2, 2008.

Palm will introduce new Windows Mobile-based smartphones in the “next few months”, while also readying release of a new Linux-based platform for year-end, company officials told analysts in an earnings conference call. The arrival of new smartphones appeared to have been delayed, as Palm’s Q4 revenue slipped to $296.1 million from $401.2 million due to a slowdown in sales of existing models, Chief Financial Officer Andrew Brown said. Analysts had forecast Q4 revenue of $301 million. “We clearly would have liked to” have shipped the new Treos sooner, but “sometimes these just take longer than you had hoped,” CEO Edward Colligan said. There will be a “couple of new products” in the market “shortly,” Colligan said. The new models will “deliver major advancements” in smartphones and will be positioned at the high-end with features like built-in 3G, WiFi and GPS, Colligan said. “We strongly believe that our combined Palm and Microsoft solution is the best all-around offering for an enterprise customer,” Colligan said. Palm also maintained that it’s on track to deliver the new Linux-based OS -- the first refresh of the Palm OS in 10 years -- by Q4 with products available in early 2009. Palm had hoped to have a Linux-based smartphone by year-end (CED Oct 10 p10). The delivery of the new Windows-based smartphones coupled with the arrival of a new platform is expected to bolster gross margins, which fell to 25.3 percent in Q4, Brown said. Palm’s gross margin suffered from increased sales of the $199 Centro, which accounted for a large number of the 968,000 smartphones the company sold through in Q4. Centro gross margins were “much lower” than expected, but total margins will see “gradual improvement throughout the fiscal year” with the arrival of new Windows product, Brown said. The Centro was introduced with Sprint in October at $99 after a $100 mail-in rebate (CED Sept 28 p2). That was a sharp departure from the Treo 755p Palm launched at $399 at the same carrier in May 2007. The Centro is being sold through AT&T, Sprint and Verizon, the latter having added the product on June 12. The Centro also has been launched in Australia, Canada (Rogers Communications), Mexico, Spain and the U.K. Centro suffered from early “supply constraints,” but “we've caught up at this point,” Brown said. For the year, Palm’s revenue hit $1.32 billion on a 19 percent rise in smartphone sales to 3.2 million units. Sales of smartphones accounted for 85 percent of Palm’s fiscal 2008 revenue, up from 80 percent a year ago. The smartphones’ Q4 average selling price was $288. As smartphones become a larger part of Palm’s business, its handheld PC segment is declining. Palm’s Q4 handheld revenue dropped 46 percent to $30.6 million on sales of 156,000 units. Palm swung to a $43.4 million Q4 net loss from a $15.3 million profit a year earlier as it took a $1.2 million restructuring charge. It also recorded a $6.6 million impairment charge for non- current auction rate securities.

The Food and Drug Administration's April 2008 interim final rule easing certain bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) restrictions on food and cosmetics becomes effective July 16, 2008. Comments on the interim rule are also due July 16, 2008.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service is reopening the comment period on its proposed rule to amend its domestic quarantine regulations to provide for the interstate movement of certain quarantined Hass avocados under certain conditions; and to amend its foreign quarantine regulations to remove certain trapping and bait spray treatment requirements. Comments are now due on or before June 26, 2008.

The Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has issued a proposed rule to incrementally increase user fees for import- and export-related services that APHIS provides for animals, animal products, birds, germ plasm, organisms, and vectors in fiscal years 2009 through 2013.

The U.S. Census Bureau has issued its final rule which amends 15 CFR Part 30 to make mandatory the filing of export information through the Automated Export System or AESDirect¹, for all shipments where a Shipper's Export Declaration (SED) is currently required, etc.

The FCC should revise its March broadcast diversity order to define who stands to benefit from it and let foreign companies take larger stakes in U.S. companies, said the Diversity and Competition Supporters coalition. Its Monday petition for partial reconsideration said the agency made “two very substantial errors” in not adopting a “workable ‘eligible entity’ definition of the class of beneficiaries” and rejecting foreign ownership reform. Section 301(b)(4) of the Communications Act lets the FCC allow foreigners to own more than 25 percent of a broadcast licensee if it’s in the public interest, said the coalition. “The Commission denied DCS’ deregulatory proposal without giving a specific substantive reason. Its procedural justification -- the need for a rulemaking proceeding -- is puzzling since, by definition, a rulemaking proceeding is sought in every petition for rulemaking.”

The Census Bureau has created an extensive Web page for its recent final rule on the mandatory filing of export information through the Automated Export System (AES) or AESDirect for all shipments where a Shipper's Export Declaration (SED) is currently required, etc.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection has posted an Excel spreadsheet listing the reject reasons for May 2008 for CBP Form 5106 Importer ID input records, CBP Form 301 Customs bonds, bond riders, bond terminations, etc.