Believe it or not: Palm and RIM to merge? A buzz is starting to build around the possibility that Palm and RIM might announce plans to merge when both companies plan to announce their quarterly earnings on Thursday. The two well-known mobile computing companies do complement each other. Palm has been searching for ways to connect with enterprise customers for years, finally agreeing to use Microsoft’s Windows Mobile operating system on one of its Treo phones to improve its corporate chances.

PCs are getting sturdier: There has been a 25 per cent decrease in annual failure rates for PC hardware over the last two years, according to a recent Gartner report. It also found that notebooks have seen a significant improvement, even if they haven’t caught up in reliability with desktops. A hardware failure was considered by Gartner researchers to be any problem that meant a hardware component would have to be replaced, whether a broken latch or a motherboard meltdown.

Office without worry: Microsoft is trying to allow people to try out the next Office — without the hassle of installing beta software or replacing their current version.The software maker released a free, Web-based test version of the new Office. The URL: http://www.microsoft.com/office/preview/beta/testdrive.mspx

Dell’s recycling program: Michael Dell himself plans to host a conference call tomorrow outlining a new recycling program at Dell. Computer companies are turning green these days, with most having acknowledged the harmful effects their products can have on the environment without proper disposal.